BARRIERS IN ADOPTION OF PHARMA 4.0: AN AHP AND FUZZY AHP APPROACH FOR IDENTIFICATION OF CRITICAL BARRIERS

Abstract

The pharmaceutical industry is under major transformation driven by the Industry4.0 technologies. This concept of adoption tools and technologies is known as Pharma 4.0. It aims in the revolution of development of medicines, manufacturing of drugs and distribution. It is achieved with the implementation of sensors, data analytic landscape, Robotics, Blockchain and many other Ind 4.0 technologies. This adoption provides a lot of benefits like reducing costs, quality improvement of medicines, rapid research on new chemical combination and quick responsive supply chain. But this adoption also offers barriers like high initial investments, security of digital data, workforce talent gaps and organizational and managerial regulatory adaptations. Therefore, the pharmaceutical landscape is filled with lot of barriers which needs to be addressed because the traditional methods lack real-time tracking of processes and faced supply chain disruptions. So, identification of critical barriers is necessary because there is ever evolving regulatory landscape of any industry which demands data privacy, efficient processes and security concerns. Thus, identifying critical barriers among various barriers which an industry faces facilitates making adequate strategies for adoption of this concept.