In its latest ICT Enterprise Insights report on the life sciences industry, market analysts Ovum forecast that IT spend by the industry globally will reach US$40.8billion by 2017, with priority areas for investment over the next 18 months to include clinical trials, supply chain, business intelligence (BI) and analytics.
The Ovum survey reveals that 60% of life sciences respondents see clinical research IT as a top-three priority in the next 18 months, while 30% see it as the biggest concern in the drug lifecycle due to the competitive advantage it can bring in improving the efficiency and productivity of drug development.
Andrew Brosnan, senior analyst at Ovum, says that the introduction of track-and-trace regulation in 2015 and 2016 is extending the current emphasis on data management to include the supply chain, with more than 50% of respondents planning to aggressively increase (by 6% of more), their spend on supply chain technologies by the end of 2014.
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According to Brosnan, the survey findings also indicate the beginning of an investment cycle for US pharma in BI and analytics, as companies see it as an effective means to improve efficiency and productivity.
Brosnan says survey revealed that the majority of respondents will be investing in new installations for enterprise performance management (65 %), predictive analytics (43%), and query tools (57%), while 70% will be transforming their existing data management and integration technical resources.
“These survey results reflect how the larger trends within the industry are affecting pharma IT investment in the US, such as outcome-based reimbursement plans, lower operating margins, mandatory price cuts, and personalized medicine. These factors are driving the pharma industry to glean more insight from large and more diverse data sets to drive down the cost of drug discovery and development.”
