Published on the 19/04/2018 | Written by Newsdesk
Clinical trials to manufacturing, supply chain to remote monitoring, IoT is dragging the pharma industry into the 21st century…
You’d be hard pressed to find a more optimistic prediction: According to research firm Global Data, IoT software and services in the pharmaceutical industry is expected to balloon from its already sizable US$420 million (as of 2015) to a staggering US$2486 million by 2020 – an annual compound growth rate 42.7 percent.
The recently released report predicts significant growth in the Asia Pacific region in particular, with almost fivefold growth against the 2015 baseline, eventually reaching a value of around US$655 million by 2020.
So what’s behind the big numbers?
In Asia-Pacific, increasing expenditure, high internet penetration rates, government investment policies and rising adoption of new technologies like cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI) are all contributing to the growth.
“IoT software and services effortlessly connect and create the base upon which IoT applications and use cases can be realised to develop a comprehensive solution that will benefit organisations to reduce response times, enhance product quality, security, and boost performance,” says Alok Singh, senior tech analyst at Global Data.
“IoT software and services spending is driven by the large adoption of cloud platform as a service (PaaS) along with advanced data analytics, new application, and use cases, which transforms data into substantial information and eventually into the activity that will boost business productivity, or better customer service.”
And it’s part of a larger movement as the healthcare sector in general seeks to bring operational efficiency, transparency and cohesion to the fragmented industry. As verticals such as pharmaceuticals, data analytics, cloud technology and IoT come together, expect strong growth across all meditech sectors. The global connected medical device market alone is predicted to reach US$73 billion by 2024 – up from US$17 billion in 2016.
“It’s part of a larger movement as the healthcare sector in general seeks to bring operational efficiency, transparency and cohesion to the fragmented industry.”
And with an aging global population, governments and regulators will surely be doing what they can to encourage the transition every step of the way.
“IoT will revolutionize the way pharmaceutical organisations will operate and do business,” says Singh.
“IoT software and services can help pharmaceutical organisations to digitise and connect critical actions, increase efficiencies, compliance, and persuade product quality that will benefit organisations to achieve a faster time to value.”
The report also posits that the Middle East and Africa will deliver the fastest overall growth in IoT spending, with North America and Europe the largest regions in terms of investment with combined US$1.5 billion representation in the market by 2020.
