DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development and IT operations to deliver software products and services faster, better, and cheaper. DevOps aims to improve collaboration, communication, automation, and feedback across the entire software lifecycle.
DevOps is a decade old concept, but it has gained popularity in recent years as more organizations realize its benefits and adopt its principles.
However, some industries are still lagging in embracing DevOps, such as the pharmaceutical industry.
Challenges in Implementing DevOps in Pharma
According to a report by McKinsey, factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, geopolitical tensions, emerging therapeutic modalities, and new ways of working highlight the need for pharmaceutical companies to carefully reassess their long-term strategies in sourcing, manufacturing, and supply chain management.
The same report also states that the pharma industry is facing a multitude of challenging trends such as high inflation and an increase in complexity and risk.
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most regulated, complex, and competitive sectors in the world. It faces many challenges such as:
- Regulatory compliance in pharma: Pharma companies have to adhere to strict quality standards and regulations from various authorities such as the FDA, EMA, MHRA, etc. These regulations require rigorous documentation, testing, validation, and auditing of every process and product.
- Legacy systems: Pharma companies often rely on outdated, siloed, and incompatible systems that hinder innovation, efficiency, and agility. These systems are difficult to integrate, maintain, and upgrade.
- Security concerns: Pharma companies have to protect their intellectual property, data, and systems from cyberattacks, theft, and sabotage. They also have to ensure the privacy and security of their customers’ personal and health information.
These challenges make it difficult for pharma companies to adopt DevOps practices and reap its benefits. However, some pharma companies have successfully implemented DevOps and transformed their operations. One example of this is our recent client.
Our client is a leading pharma company. They wanted a faster and highly efficient system since they were struggling to meet the market demands due to the manual and time-consuming deployment process.
We provided our client with DevOps and Automation solutions that were tailored specifically to meet their business needs.
- Continuous Integration & Continuous Delivery in pharma: We developed CI/CD pipelines to automate the building, testing, and deployment of software applications
- IaC: Our solution enabled quick and consistent environment setup for development, testing, and production by enabling IaC principles using tools like Terraform
- Automated Testing: Introduced Automated Testing to fix and identify bugs early in the development cycle.
- Monitoring and Alerting: We created smart alerting system to address incident before they impacted operations.
With our solution, the client’s system outage was decreased by 47% leading to increased competitiveness and operational efficiency.
DevOps Trends in Pharma
DevOps is not a one-size-fits-all solution for pharma companies. It requires customization and adaptation according to the specific needs and goals of each company. However, some common trends that are emerging in DevOps in pharma are:
- Automation of Processes: Pharma companies are automating various processes such as data collection, analysis, reporting, validation, etc. using tools such as RPA (Robotic Process Automation), NLP (Natural Language Processing), OCR (Optical Character Recognition), etc.
- Cloud Adoption in pharma: Pharma companies are moving their systems and data to the cloud to leverage its scalability, flexibility, security, and cost-effectiveness. They are using cloud platforms such as AWS (Amazon Web Services), Azure (Microsoft), GCP (Google Cloud Platform), etc.
- AI and Machine Learning in pharma: Pharma companies are using AI and machine learning to enhance their capabilities in areas such as drug discovery, clinical trials, diagnosis, treatment, etc. They are using tools such as TensorFlow (Google), PyTorch (Facebook), Scikit-learn (Python), etc.
Benefits of DevOps in Pharma
DevOps can bring many benefits to pharma companies such as:
- Faster time-to-market: DevOps can help pharma companies deliver software products and services faster by reducing the development cycle time and eliminating waste.
- Improved quality and reliability: DevOps can help pharma companies improve the quality and reliability of their software products and services by ensuring that they meet regulatory standards and customer expectations.
- Better collaboration between teams: DevOps can help pharma companies foster a culture of collaboration between teams by breaking down silos and encouraging cross-functional communication.
Conclusion
DevOps is a powerful approach that can help pharma companies transform their operations and deliver value to their customers. DevOps consulting services can help pharma companies overcome the challenges of regulatory compliance, legacy systems, and security concerns. DevOps can also help pharma companies leverage the trends of automation, cloud adoption, and AI and machine learning. DevOps can ultimately help pharma companies achieve faster time-to-market, improved quality and reliability, and better collaboration between teams.
FAQs About DevOps in Pharma
1. What are the main challenges of implementing DevOps in the pharmaceutical industry?
Implementing DevOps in the pharmaceutical industry presents several challenges, including stringent regulatory compliance requirements, outdated legacy systems, and significant security concerns. Pharma companies must navigate strict quality standards from authorities like the FDA and EMA, deal with complex and siloed IT systems, and protect sensitive intellectual property and customer data from cyber threats.
2. How can DevOps improve regulatory compliance in pharmaceutical companies?
DevOps can enhance regulatory compliance in pharmaceutical companies by automating documentation, testing, and validation processes. With Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) pipelines, companies can ensure that their software meets regulatory standards more efficiently and accurately, reducing the risk of errors and improving audit trails.
3. What are the benefits of adopting DevOps practices in the pharma sector?
Adopting DevOps practices in the pharma sector offers numerous benefits, including faster time-to-market for new products, improved software quality and reliability, and better collaboration between development and operations teams. DevOps enables the automation of processes, enhances operational efficiency, and aligns software development with regulatory requirements, ultimately leading to more competitive and reliable products.
4. What role do AI and machine learning play in DevOps for pharma?
AI and machine learning play a crucial role in enhancing DevOps for the pharmaceutical industry by improving capabilities in areas like drug discovery, clinical trials, and diagnostics. These technologies help automate complex data analysis, predict outcomes, and optimize processes, thereby accelerating research and development, and improving overall efficiency in drug development.
