Publication

E-business in pharma survey 

It's official: PA Consulting Group finds e-business in the pharmaceutical industry is simply business as usual

We surveyed CIOs, vice presidents and directors of pharmaceutical and mid- and large-sized biotechnology firms in North America and Europe. Here is a summary of the key findings:

Wait and see attitude

Pharmaceutical companies are neither quickly adopting nor investing heavily in e-business ventures or projects

E-business strategy

Few companies have solidified an e-business strategy or fully understand the opportunities available

Implementation

Implementation tends to be ad hoc with projects concentrated largely in one-off enterprise-wide support functions (procurement, intranets etc.)

Ownership and governance choices

Funding and control of e-business is split between central and local control

Performance measurement

Performance targets for e-business projects are challenging to establish, track and improve

R&D transformation

R&D e-business efforts are prevalent at later stages of the process with possibly lost opportunity to transform the entire process.