The Future of Drug Development: How Digitization is Reshaping the Pharma Landscape

The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a transformational shift through the integration of advanced digital technologies, and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, a leading multinational pharmaceutical company based in India, is emerging at the forefront of this revolution. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0 or 4IR) technologies are driving this shift, enabling companies to improve productivity, engage their workforce, ensure sustainability, and enhance supply chain resilience.

Digital transformation has already reshaped the pharmaceutical landscape, providing a wide range of benefits to market participants. Companies are leveraging AI and big data to improve productivity and accelerate processes, while automation and data analysis tools can process enormous amounts of data. This allows researchers and API manufacturers to gain useful and timely insights to boost their research and drug development efforts. AI and machine learning tools are also being used to streamline and save costs in the drug discovery process. According to Insider Intelligence, AI could save companies up to 70% on drug discovery expenses.

Dr. Reddy's Laboratories began its ambitious program to 'digitize its core' five years ago, with plans to upgrade infrastructure and digitize processes for robust and comprehensive data capture. By utilizing real-time data and insights, Dr. Reddy's initiated Project 'OpsNext', which involved deploying six out of the eight 4IR technologies and over 40 use cases to transform its plant into an Industry 4.0 'Lighthouse' factory as defined by the World Economic Forum. In 2022, the company's manufacturing facilities in Bachupally, Hyderabad were recognized as part of the Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) by the World Economic Forum. With this recognition, Dr. Reddy's has joined a community of over 100 companies in the GLN that are pushing the frontiers of 4IR technologies and employing advanced digital technologies to achieve transformational change across their operations.

The company's manufacturing facility saw impressive results from these initiatives. The site achieved a remarkable 43% improvement in manufacturing costs, a 30% reduction in production lead time, a 41% reduction in energy consumption, and a significant decrease in quality deviations, demonstrating the efficacy of the company's Industry 4.0-driven approach. Dr. Reddy's continues its massive digital transformation journey by leveraging emerging technologies such as cloud computing. With a comprehensive strategy in place, the company aims to transform its operating environment to cloud-native by FY'25, achieving over 70% workload transformation in the process. Sanjay Sharma, Global Head of Manufacturing at Dr. Reddy's noted that "Dr. Reddy's aspires to be the most efficient pharma operations in the world. Our productivity improvement and digitization efforts are key to staying competitive, meeting business imperatives, and meeting our ambitious ESG goals."

Mukesh Rathi, the Chief Digital and Information Officer at Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, has identified two key areas with significant potential for digital transformation. First, the company is utilizing analytics-based insights in its core pharma value chain (R&D, manufacturing, supply) - to select drugs, in-silico experiments to develop new drugs, and automated lights-out manufacturing for dynamic supply chain management and faster drug discovery. Second, the company aims to improve customer and patient experiences by delivering services through digital channels such as data and analytics based engagement with healthcare professionals, meaningful in-clinic engagement by sales representatives, top-tier knowledge-sharing platforms, and more. The company's recent foray into digital healthcare, titled 'SVAAS', seeks to integrate four key touchpoints, including doctor consultations, pathology laboratories and diagnostic services, pharmacies, and insurance, through strategic collaborations.

With a solid digital transformation plan in place, Dr. Reddy's is emerging as a leader in leveraging the significant impact that digitalization can bring to the pharmaceutical industry. By developing digital and analytics tools to boost productivity and embracing the industry 4.0 revolution to transform its manufacturing plants into smart units, Dr. Reddy's is laying the groundwork for the future of pharma. The company's efforts to digitize its core have shown promising results, and its comprehensive strategy to leverage cloud computing and emerging technologies will further enhance its position as a leader in the pharmaceutical industry.