Survey: Pharma partnerships valued in harnessing 'smart' tech

As pharma companies continue to scale up digital transformation processes, a survey by GlobalData has noted that collaborating with experienced external vendors is a contributor of implementing "smart" technology. The data and analytics company says that technologies including 5G, internet of things (IoT), sensors, blockchain, cloud and virtual/augmented reality were the top technologies for which pharma companies used external vendors, whereas they were more likely to develop tools around artificial intelligence (AI), big data/analytics or robotics in-house.

The survey, which was published in GlobalData’s latest report, "Smart Pharma," discovered that the majority of healthcare professionals would turn to external vendors to implement 5G to their processes, at 65% of respondents. This was followed by blockchain at 55% and IoT and sensors at 50%. Conversely, 28% of respondents would implement AI in-house, followed by big data/analytics and robotics at 26% each.

“Implementing smart technologies into pharmaceutical processes requires substantial financial resources, time, and knowledge, especially since the speed of innovation is accelerating rapidly. As pharmaceutical companies continue to revamp their portfolios and digital transformation speeds up, partnering with technology providers becomes a natural step for the industry to take,” says Urte Jakimaviciute, GlobalData’s senior director of market research.

Jakimaviciute adds that “Businesses are more likely to use external vendors to deploy technologies that are less widespread, have fewer use cases, or need to be implemented in short timeframes. While there is no way to slow down the digital transformation, a collaboration with external technology vendors may be a key to success.”