The importance of pharma’s digital revolution

Indeed, the pharmaceutical sector is currently in the midst of a digital revolution. We are already seeing much higher levels of transparency and adaptivity for a digitally driven plant floor, a movement which will only increase over the coming years, incorporating cyber-physical systems, Internet of Things, cloud computing, cognitive computing, and artificial intelligence.

Treat digital systems as a priority

Digitalization in the pharma sector will soon touch every one of us. In addition to the global pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors, digitalization will touch everyone on an individual basis.

Health itself is becoming increasingly digital. Think of all the opportunities in healthcare, from Tele Health solutions, including advances such as smartphone applications to wearable devices, up to sensors that may be ingested or implanted under the skin.

There is also a whole raft of personal medicine applications, including advanced analytics and digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Internet of Things and blockchain to manage patient treatment lifecycle at an individual level.

The digital supply chain

Advanco was one of the first companies in the pharmaceutical sector to highlight the importance of how digital systems will sit behind a revolution in how supply-chains are structured.

One of the major issues highlighted by the pandemic was the fact the globe had become overly reliant on just one geography – namely China – for the supply of medication and medical equipment.

Fast-forward to today and while there is a still an overwhelming reliance on geographies such as China for the supply of much of the globe’s medication, the Covid pandemic has seen this pattern starting to shift, a pattern that is being driven by the latest technology and systems.

Openness between manufacturers

The advent of the virus has highlighted the importance for product track & trace to work together, resulting in a supply-chain which will minimize costs for pharmaceutical companies and lead towards a new standard of openness and cooperation.

This is something that advanco has long pushed for. We have long argued that the hardware and the software among different vendors needs to be much more aligned and should work much closer together, resulting in much more open and cooperative serialization processes.

Machines need to speak to each other in a common language, regardless of the manufacturer.

Conclusion

Digitalization and the future pharma sector will be intrinsically linked together. If there are still any companies out there that still cannot grasp the importance of this, they need to take a long, hard look at themselves now – before it’s too late.

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