Pharmaceutical organizations are reassessing their laboratory setup and operations, placing emphasis on expediting digitalization, harnessing AI, streamlining processes, and fostering the appropriate skills and culture for a lab overhaul. The drive to accelerate cycle times is instigating change, with the majority (92 percent) of pharmaceutical organizations identifying this as a primary motivator for developing ‘next-gen’ labs prepared for the future.
The insights come from the latest report by the Capgemini Research Institute titled ‘Building the Next-Gen Pharma Lab: Digitally Connected, Environmentally Sustainable,’ which delves into the present state of pharma lab transformation, the hurdles to surmount, and the anticipated benefits of constructing a lab fit for the future.
The research underscores that the primary drivers for lab transformation include the imperative for swifter development of innovative drugs, the pressure to optimize costs, and the necessity to enhance drug approval rates. Consequently, pharmaceutical organizations are endeavouring to establish more agile, efficient, collaborative, and sustainable labs to effectively tackle these challenges and foster scientific breakthroughs.
Major pharmaceutical entities are projected to nearly double their investment in lab transformation by 2025, allocating up to 7 percent of their revenue compared to the current 4 percent. Almost 75 percent of pharmaceutical organizations have initiated their lab modernization journey, with the remainder strategizing their approach. Nonetheless, despite the evident value of a connected, state-of-the-art lab environment, most organizations have yet to progress beyond the pilot and proof-of-concept (PoC) phase. Only one in ten organizations surveyed have partially or fully expanded their lab transformation endeavours.
As reported by Express Pharma, the Capgemini Research Institute conducted surveys with over 700 respondents within R&D, quality, and process development labs from 235 pharmaceutical and biotech organizations across the US, the UK, Switzerland, France, Germany, Japan, and India in October 2023.
Eighty-five percent of the surveyed organizations have an annual revenue exceeding $1 billion, while 15 percent fall within the range of $500 million to $1 billion. The respondents, who held positions at the director level or above, represented various functional areas, including research and pre-clinical trials, clinical trials, analytical method development, manufacturing process development, regulatory affairs, pharmacology and product safety, information/digital technology, data and analytics, as well as innovation.
