Data silos threatening productivity and efficiency levels for nearly half of pharma businesses

Nearly half (48%) of senior decision-makers working for drug development companies or manufacturers said data silos derailed the efficiency of cross-functional collaboration in their organisation. This was a key finding of research commissioned by Aspen Technology, which surveyed 400 global professionals with expertise in drug development or manufacturing to find out where drug manufacturing is headed in the next 3-5 years.

According to the research, larger pharma businesses in particular are more likely to see data silos hinder internal collaboration efforts. More than half (53%) of businesses with total annual revenues of more than US$1 billion said these silos derailed the efficiency of cross-functional collaboration in their organisation versus 44% for companies with annual revenue between US$50 million and US$249 million (£47 million- £224million) and 47% for companies with revenues between US$250 and US$999 million range, who said the same.

Raman Bhatnagar, Vice President and General Manager at Aspen Technology, said: “Information silos are often created by lack of connectivity between data sources across departments, which can hinder efficiencies across the product lifecycle. This is especially true when scaling up from drug design to commercial manufacture and then again when moving from production to quality assurance release.”

He added: “One way of breaking down the barriers is by deploying products that utilise a common data ecosystem enabling real-time data access. Such deployments afford greater data access, visibility across departments and among partners, and enable more informed data analysis and decision-making.”

44% of the survey sample saw increasing the use of cloud/SaaS solutions as being among the three most important steps their company is taking to improve operational agility and keep up with market demands over the next 3-5 years.