Use of information technology in India’s pharmaceutical industry

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of information technology (IT) in pharmaceutical industry in India and its influence on cost, productivity, compliance and quality of the pharmaceutical products. A questionnaire was developed containing 22 items, which was sent to 400+ pharma professionals working in different functions of 45 different organizations. A total of 111 responses which represented different organizations including manufacturers of sterile drug products, non-sterile drug products, active pharmaceutical ingredients and combinations of these type of products were received and analysed. For ANOVA analysis, respondents were divided into two groups. Based on the IT spending as a percentage of the total budget, the first group included the respondents who confirmed Th at their organization spent less than 4% of the total annual budget; while the second group included the respondents who confirmed that their organization spent more than 4% of the total annual budget. A significant p-value suggests that there is a statistical difference in Productivity / Cost and Quality / Compliance depending on the IT investments by the firms. Information technology has significant role in the pharmaceutical industry by improving compliance, data integrity and reliability, and overall product quality. Implementation of IT solutions has given immense confidence to the regulators auditing the manufacturing site. This paper contributes to the available knowledge about the pharma industry with specific reference to the Indian pharmaceutical industry. This study also helps to unravel the impact of IT adoption on pharmaceutical organizations' performance parameters.