Every industry has its demons. The pharmaceutical industry’s struggles — its aversion to risk, fear of regulatory backlash, the siloed nature of its organizational structure — are well documented.
But today’s developing environment — coined the Fourth Industrial Revolution and characterized by rapidly evolving and disruptive advances in technology — has created a new and intimidating landscape. According to the World Economic Forum, this current revolution is “reshaping industries, blurring geographical boundaries, challenging existing regulatory frameworks, and even redefining what it means to be human.”¹ In this new world, tools such as automation, IIoT, cloud-computing and data analytics offer all industries the potential for digital transformation — if they can properly understand and implement them.
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing’s second annual Smart Pharma survey separately asked drug manufacturers and equipment and services vendors* their thoughts on the pharma industry’s digital transformation progress.