BiopharmaTrend.com

New legislation requiring pharmaceutical companies to implement 'serialization' is now coming into force. This means that no counterfeit product should enter the supply chain and no legitimate product is diverted from its intended destination. To work effectively, serialization requires a comprehensive system to track and trace the passage of prescription drugs through the entire supply chain. The application of track and trace principles can help to avoid counterfeit medicines from entering the supply chain. To be effective, digital technologies such as blockchain and RFID-enabled tag and trace systems need to be embraced.

Pioneered by expensive and cumbersome legacy electronic data interchange (EDI) systems, the B2B e-commerce market has been evolving, showing a staggering growth rate with a projected volume of $1.1 trillion in the U.S. alone and $6.7 trillion globally by 2020.

The digital transformation of biopharmaceutical manufacturing is continuing at a rapid pace as companies attempt to mine the sources of data available. Innovations include predictive analytics, big data analytics, and creating the digital plant. Digital transformation offers a mechanism to revise its business model, to improve production processes, to design new drugs faster by using artificial intelligence to screen compounds and to increase responsiveness to customers. Furthermore, the volume of data processed by pharmaceutical firms shows no sign of slowing down. This means pharmaceutical companies must act quickly in terms of building core internal digital capabilities and moving beyond their traditional IT functions to all areas of the business.