Automation expenditures in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry are expected to exceed $3 billion by 2012. “Even with tightening budgets and the current financial crisis, the market for automation products and systems in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry continues to be moderate to strong. However, much of the current automation focuses on projects with immediate return on investments, projects that are the result of consolidation of manufacturing operations, and standardization of applications across the entire enterprise,” according to Principal Analyst for the CPG Industries
John Blanchard, the principal author of ARC’s “
Automation Expenditures for Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industry Worldwide Outlook”.
The four major areas of focus in pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturing are manufacturing productivity, flexibility, and service; the new scientific risk-based approach to regulatory compliance; reducing the cost and time of technology transfer; and ensuring product quality, safety, security, and delivery. The industry has also expressed concern over how it is going to support the ever-increasing level of automation with increasingly limited technical resources. This study will help users learn what others in the industry are doing and the capabilities of each supplier. The study discusses strategies and tactics for suppliers and user manufacturers to be successful in the rapidly changing environment of the worldwide pharmaceutical and biotech industry.
Opportunities and Challenges
Over-investing has left big pharmaceutical companies with surplus manufacturing capacity at the same time R&D pipelines are drying up, regulatory barriers are delaying new approvals, and many of the blockbuster products are losing patent protection. Discovering and commercializing new drug products remains the cornerstone of the industry. As new drug lifecycles continue to decrease and drug development expenses continue to rise, shortening time-to-commercialization is vital. However, traditional industry growth drivers of R&D and sales and marketing are slowing. Competition is intense. API and excipient manufacturing and sourcing have become global. This is placing new emphasis on manufacturing to drive margin and growth. The Darwinian concept of “adapt or die” is on the mind of every senior executive; and proper selection and deployment of automation technology have become vital to success.
There are several reasons why production management software and analytics software are two of the fastest growing automation technologies being deployed by users. Some suppliers have analytics that help reduce production cycle time and throughput. Others have analytics that can evaluate numerous solvent extraction schemes, reducing the number of experiments performed during the drug development phase.
Some suppliers have a strong presence in one or two geographic regions. Others have a strong presence on all four geographic regions, including a strong support infrastructure. Less presence in a geographic region can be an opportunity for the supplier. However, user manufacturers must evaluate such a supplier’s regional support capabilities and commitment to their industry needs. The Latin American market is the fastest growing, but also a small market. Asia is the second fastest growing market and growing in market share. India and China are playing a significant role in this market in terms of automation expenditures, CRM and CMO capabilities, and domain expert IT services. Acquisitions continue in 2009. However, acquisitions are one of several factors inhibiting deployment of new automation products and systems.
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