The healthcare and pharmaceutical industry has drastically transformed in the last few years with the oncoming of the latest and world-class technology. It has changed the pace to grow to another level and has rapidly integrated with the changing time of growth. Moreover, with the enhancement and oncoming digitalization, pharma companies have grown with end-to-end operations management, even in small-scale industries. Pharma companies have faced many problems regarding manufacturing, quality control, serialization, supply chain management, process automation, and much more. But thanks to techno, pharma companies have dealt with these problems successfully with the help of multi-edge tools, valuable tools, and technologies.

When we speak about the pandemic hitting the world in the year 2020, it has been challenging and demanding for pharma companies to cater reasonable solutions for the world’s condition. Many healthcare units and the pharmaceutical industry have spent sleepless nights trying to find a formidable solution to these global crises. The sudden increase in the requirement for fresh ideas with the help of experienced therapeutics and the demand for a quick vaccine to face the problem of the already ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has put pharmaceutical manufacturers on the front foot. The significant issues and pain areas that the pharma companies face have become visible to the world sector in 2020.

This led to the rise of digitalization in pharmaceutical operations management to accelerate and cope with the increasing demand for instant medication all around the globe.

The highly qualified and leading executives and decision-makers were also in search of some positive transformation in technologies that can streamline management, operations, quality control, and supply chain. This was the time that could be said to be the “Digitalisation in Pharmaceutical Companies,” where the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector has navigated through times of transformation in search of the perfect solution to their lengthy and never-ending procedures.

Following are some of the primary reasons that made the pharmaceuticals say a “Big YES” to digitalization:

Batch Manufacturing

The traditional method of batch manufacturing in the pharma industry was full of challenges as it was a lengthy procedure with lots of effort and costs. Production in batches also makes it necessary for the companies to batch-wise quality check the final products, leading to a rise in employee downtime. Batch manufacturing has also made it heavy to manage as it usually requires a lot of storage space and facilities, a lot of process reports, and different checkpoints, leading to a high chance of human error. The Pharmaceutical Operations needed a good, agile and effective procedure to reduce all this stress. However, the batch manufacturing process doesn’t fulfill the requirements of an ideal method.

Challenges faced during Quality Control and Quality Check 

Quality is one of the significant and non-negotiable factors in the pharma industry. When we think about Pharmaceutical operational management, it is compulsory to follow timely quality checks, and observing any sort of disturbance or problem in the procedure is highly disappointing. However, maintaining the process of checking and controlling the medicine’s quality is not easy. It also has a lot of struggles and challenges. It is also observed that many manufacturers often face some challenges with quality control checks for raw materials and manufactured batches. When we think about workforce checking these batches for generic and customer-specific potency requirements, it can be exhausting and may be causing errors. They also need to ensure perfect condition for storage conditions, proper reporting, analysis of the records, etc., driving one of the biggest challenges for the pharma companies.

Problems of Inventory Management

One of the primary reasons responsible for the disturbance caused to the pharma companies in the pandemic is supply chain management and inventory management. Whether a large or a small-scale pharmaceutical company, they face these problems with quantification and replenishment decisions. Due to a sudden increase in demand that is not even strategically listed and is unpredictable, over or under-stocking has seriously disturbed the management of the companies and affected them.

Drastic Transformation in the Pharmaceutical Industry

 With the unpredictable transformation that is an outcome of the crises, the pharmaceutical, life sciences, and biotech companies have gone through a lot to expedite processes, integrate automation and streamline their operations. This sudden requirement of products and expedition of work has daunted these companies as they struggle with moving to newer systems.

However, every problem has a solution. And to these challenges, pharmaceutical companies have worked hard and put their heads together to rethink their operational management strategies. With the oncoming of suitable and latest technologies, biopharmaceutical manufacturers have resolved their significant struggles and started walking the path of their digitization journey while systematically managing their end-to-end operations.

Take Away

The problems and hardships caused to end-to-end operations management are not new to the pharma sector. Thanks to digitalization and the Integration of tools and technologies that have been an aid and cure in making the process more effective and efficient. These have become one of the most crucial parts and have been a critical aspect for pharma manufacturers. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has made these challenges even more painful to the pharma industry.