Technology Trends in the Pharmaceutical Industry in 2022

Today technology permeates the core business of virtually all businesses, and the pharmaceutical industry is no different. In this article, we summarize the 5 main technology trends in the pharmaceutical market in 2022.

“Being able to leverage these and other technologies is a fundamental imperative for the pharmaceutical sector, and this means the digitalization of processes and the optimization of digital journeys between us and doctors and patients”- Zappts Client from the Pharmaceutical Sector

Trend 1: IT as a Business Lever

There is a trend in the pharmaceutical industry, as in all other industries and markets in the world, of seeing the technology area as a cross-functional area to the business, increasingly less with a support, helpdesk view, and increasingly more integrated with the company’s areas.

In the old view, information technology served only as a work infrastructure, and today it is increasingly integrated into the company’s business, often being part of the industry’s core business.

This can be evidenced both by the increase in development and integration of systems and platforms in the pharmaceutical sector, as well as by the migration of professionals to the IT area.

Thus, the change in perspective about the role of technology in pharmaceutical companies can be seen as a market trend, with an approach increasingly less focused on infrastructure and increasingly oriented towards products and the real needs of stakeholders.

Trend 2: Integration of Platforms and Legacy Systems

On one hand, the pharmaceutical industry already operates intelligently using data for decision-making, but today these data are distributed and fragmented across different worlds, and the platform view tends to cause the fusion of such worlds, namely:

• Research world;
• Development world, which encompasses, in addition to product development, analytical research;
• Manufacturing world, which actually handles production, managing all data related to product quality, compliance;
• Logistics world, the distribution of these products to distributors;
• Sales world, which encompasses marketing, commercial and market positioning.

The fusion of these worlds is necessary so that we actually have all data communicating with each other.

This includes the connection between legacy systems, mainly but not only in the manufacturing area, so that all data can be operated under a unique platform view.

Thus, enabling greater connectivity, development of different applications, and new synergies between areas that were previously not possible.

This platform view also tends to increase the business’s ability to generate insights for departments, not only for each specific world but also for cross worlds, through a holistic view.

In this way, we can increasingly use, for example, a trend in the pharmaceutical industry of validating products in phase I, II, and III, and then moving to manufacturing with all accessible data that enhance assertive decision-making.

Therefore, integration between platforms generates value for the industry, with greater integration of manufacturing with logistics, logistics with sales, always generating an insights ecosystem that is much more powerful for the sector.

Furthermore, from a trends perspective, there is also preparation of the sector for open data challenges, where the industry prepares for a moment when data tends to be shared in real time, without much prior processing by regulatory bodies and other partners in the pharmaceutical industry chain — for example, for those who manufacture pharmaceutical inputs — having this direct, automatic connection with those who buy these IFAs (pharmaceutical active ingredients).

Trend 3: Data Driven Decision – Data-driven Decisions and Artificial Intelligence

The trend is to have an increasingly greater conjunction of available data in the industry.

For example, for specific applications that support better sales force direction, or for market intelligence to gain more and more insights, today, broadly speaking, all industries buy market data and look at the same source — perhaps segmenting differently — that is, they get this information from the same place.

However, as more data becomes available in this integration, it will be more possible for the industry to also seek other data sources that can feed market intelligence and, with this, it may translate into a better sales strategy and greater marketing gains.

Trend 4: Automation and Synergy

It is a trend in all businesses to increasingly automate processes that are manual, operational, and advancing, of course, to analysis and interpretation processes.

So, the first pillar of automation and synergy has to do with data manipulation, considering that the pharmaceutical industry traditionally needs — even for regulatory reasons — to compile, store and report a lot of data.

Therefore, we have a whole universe of automations that can be done in this manipulation, which even includes low-complexity statistical analyses that are necessary for: quality assurance activities, validation, reports, annual product reviews, and so on for the CPV itself (Continued Process Verification).

Furthermore, this automation and synergy permeates the GxP (good practices) and compliance environment, increasingly moving towards creating automation that is compliant with these regulatory standards and good manufacturing practices.

Trend 5: Digitalization of the Doctor-Patient Relationship

Today everything is digital, including the way we interact with our stakeholders. The development and strengthening of digital channels for relationship with doctors and patients, for example, is one of the trends in the pharmaceutical industry.

Through relationship digitalization, the pharmaceutical sector is enhancing the engagement of laboratories with patients and doctors, generating a unified and integrated experience across all of the company’s digital channels.

Furthermore, the optimization of digital touchpoints such as website, CRM channels and applications, among others, ensures competitiveness and perceived differentials across the entire pharmaceutical sector’s productive chain.

We know that the technological challenges of the pharmaceutical industry are not limited to just these 5 topics, but we believe that optimizing these aspects can generate a great competitive advantage within the industry. We are constantly talking with players in this market and are always available to help the industry in its digital transformation challenges, especially regarding the digital aspect and the experience of stakeholders in the pharmaceutical area. Want to chat with our specialists in the pharma sector? Get in touch via email: zappts@zappts.com