- Study on the degree of digitization in the home
Pharmaceutical landscape against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. - The pandemic has increased awareness of digitization, while progress in digitization is not yet having a widespread effect.
- The challenge is less with the financial resources
Resources, but rather with the required know-how. - The pharmaceutical experts surveyed would like everything in external communication to be more digitized.
The past year and a half have placed great demands on the pharmaceutical industry. At the same time, this time has made it clear how important digital structures are for companies to remain viable and future-oriented. In many places, the corona pandemic brought a real boost to digitization. As the study “Pharmaceuticals and digitization in Austria 2021” has now found, the pharmaceutical industry could take the first steps towards digital transformation, and at the same time the potential that is still outstanding is becoming apparent.
The study was carried out jointly by PHARMIG, the Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry, and the innovation service provider Zühlke Austria, with the support of the Digital Healthcare Connection. 200 industry experts were appointed over the period from May to July 2021. The study provides information about the status of digitization in the domestic pharmaceutical industry and what influence the corona pandemic had on it. In addition, it was examined which factors play a special role in digital change and which challenges still need to be mastered.
More awareness in the company, at the same time for
real digitization boost
It turns out that the pandemic acted as a “digital awareness-raising”. 89% of the feelings of digitization as essential for corporate success, 90% stated that the importance of digitization had increased due to the pandemic. In terms of corporate goals set, 38% of the assumptions reported that their company already had digital strategic goals before the pandemic. That number has increased to 46% since 2019.
The results of the study show that. In future, the areas of the future would like more digitization, especially in communication with current and new external contacts (5959%). Digitization is confused with digital transformation. The processes used up to now were simply relocated to the digital sphere (online meetings, e-learning, virtual information distribution instead of on-site), while a specific digital transformation with critical questioning of existing processes and procedures was not the focus to the same extent.
The challenge of internal digitization know-how
The study also clearly shows that companies need the knowledge they need to develop and implement digitization strategies (59%). 57% see data protection and security concerns as a challenge and 50% see it as critical that digitization is still given too little attention and attention in corporate strategy. It seems to be less due to the regulations (28%), as well as to financial resources (27%).
“We see that more than half of the pharmaceutical companies surveyed did not have any explicit know-how increase in the field of digitization. This slows the implementation of digital strategies. The pandemic has clearly shown that agile know-how transfer by external experts as well as the development of an ecosystem in which they bring their respective strengths to accelerate the digital transformation, ”said Industry Lead Health & Life Sciences from Zühlke Austria .
The digital future of the pharmaceutical industry
The greatest future potential for digital applications in the pharmaceutical industry is seen primarily in telemedical integration (23%) and digitization in sales (20%). Die also see great future potential in internal digitization (19%) and Care 4.0 solutions (17%).
From a structural point of view, building up knowledge in the company, together with a clear digitization strategy involving all stakeholders, WILL play a major role. Would you like to derive a concrete recommendation for action from the results of the study and effectively promote the sustainable digitization of corporate processes and procedures, evaluate procedures and digitally rethink them? External experts can also provide support here with appropriate innovation knowledge and provide valuable input.
“The pharmaceutical industry in Austria is in the process of digitization. Even if all of the potential of digitization has not yet been tapped, we can still see that some important steps have already been taken. Now it is a matter of defining sustainable, effective digitization strategies and anchoring them in the company, ”says Ronald Pichler, Head of Public Affairs & Market Access at PHARMIG.
The results of the study Pharma and Digitization in Austria 2021 can be downloaded [hier bereitgestellt] (https://bit.ly/3imLa5R).
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About the PHARMIG:
PHARMIG is the voluntary interest group for the Austrian pharmaceutical industry. The association currently has around 120 members (as of October 2021), who cover a good 95 percent of the drug market. PHARMIG and its members stand for the best possible security of supply with pharmaceuticals in the healthcare sector and ensure social and medical progress through quality and innovation.
Zühlke – empowering ideas.
We are convinced that innovations and technological progress can positively change our economy and society. Together with our customers, we work on sustainable solutions for the future every day. Zühlke is a global innovation service provider. We create new ideas and products for our customers. Based on the latest technologies, we create and transform services and products – from the initial vision through development, production and delivery to operation. With a wealth of experience from more than 10,000 projects in software and product development, Zühlke works with customers to develop future-proof solutions in a wide variety of industries. In Austria, the industry focus is on healthcare, life sciences, consumer goods, services and energy & water.