March 30, 2020
Nearly $4.5 billion of life sciences IT services deal up for grabs over 2020-2021
Speed to market is the primary focus of biopharmaceutical and medical device firms when it comes to their investment in life sciences IT services (ITS), a market which is expected to grow at a steady 9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2025, according to Everest Group.
Nearly $4.5 billion of life sciences IT services deal are up for grabs over 2020-2021. Everest Group research shows that these deals will be led by digital initiatives such as artificial-intelligence-assisted drug discovery, leveraging real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) to make clinical trials more accurate, industry 4.0 to automate manufacturing, and responsive supply chains.
Everest Group reports that although biopharmaceutical companies and medical device firms have traditionally devoted the largest share of their ITS investments to manufacturing (31% share) and sales and marketing (25% share), research and development (R&D) has become the fastest growing segment of life sciences ITS expenditures. ITS investments in clinical/device trials and drug discovery/device product development are expected to grow at rates of 15% and 12% respectively through 2025.
“Rising drug prices have become a major concern for healthcare payers, governments and patients, especially since drug and device efficacy and outcomes have not been improving in line with the increasing prices,” explained Nitish Mittal, vice president at Everest Group. “As life sciences firms face pushback on pricing as well as pressure from competitive forces, they can and will look to the IT services landscape for innovative platforms and solutions for R&D functions. As a result, we expect the life sciences R&D segments to witness a healthy growth in demand for IT services in the 12-15% range, compared to an 8-9% growth rate for the life sciences ITS market as a whole.”
Digital transformation has been identified as a strategic imperative by many life sciences enterprises, with particularly emphasis on leveraging enormous amounts of health data now available from electronic health records (EHR), clinical trials, wearables, health apps, genomic sequencing, social media and many other sources. Enterprises are looking at AI-driven systems to leverage this RWD. For example, about 60% of biopharmaceutical companies currently use machine learning to analyze RWD; 95% expect to use it in the future.
ITS providers are significantly ramping up their digital capabilities to cater to this need. Everest Group predicts that numerous high-growth segments in the life sciences ITS market will exceed 10% CAGR from 2020 to 2025, including the following:
- Clinical trials management (13-15%): Top demand themes will be pharmacovigilance (PV) automation, pragmatic trials using real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE), and virtual trials enablement.
- Personalized and efficient drug discovery (14-16%): Top demand themes will be genomics data analysis and drug repurposing solutions.
- Patient engagement (16-18%): Top demand themes will be digital therapeutics and Software as a Medical Device (SaMD), including mobile apps, patient portals and smart devices. Patient monitoring and health interventions will be top demand themes as well.
- Omni-channel marketing support (10-12%): Top demand themes will be customer analytics to measure success of different marketing channels, and customer cohort segmentation and engagement through customized digital marketing campaigns.
Everest Group shares these findings and more in its recently published report, Life Sciences State of the Market – Key Trends, Service Provider Performance in 2019, and Outlook for 2020. This report examines the global 2019 life sciences ITS service provider landscape and covers themes expected to garner greater interest in 2020. It analyzes key market trends and provides a snapshot of all the life sciences IT services PEAK Matrix® assessments carried out in 2019.
***Download a complimentary abstract of the report***
About Everest Group
Everest Group is a consulting and research firm focused on strategic IT, business services, engineering services, and sourcing. Our clients include leading global enterprises, service providers, and investors. Through our research-informed insights and deep experience, we guide clients in their journeys to achieve heightened operational and financial performance, accelerated value delivery, and high-impact business outcomes. Details and in-depth content are available at http://www.everestgrp.com.
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