Pharmaceutical companies require efficient technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, artificial intelligence and big data to manage information that is vital to the development and production of successful drugs.
As a result, pharmaceutical firms are increasing their investment on various security products to prevent breaches, protect patient data and secure sensitive information, according to data and analytics company GlobalData.

According to GlobalData’s survey, 79% of pharmaceutical companies are currently making investments in identity and access management (IAM) solutions and 72% of companies are considering investment in the solutions over the next two years.

Siddharth Kumar Tiwari, technology analyst at GlobalData, explains: “Investments in IAM solutions among pharmaceutical companies are driven by the need to manage electronic user identities and ensure data privacy while avoiding any misuse of critical business information.”

The survey also reveals that an equal proportion (75%) of pharmaceutical companies are currently deploying some form of backup and archiving, and content and web filtering solutions to store as well as preserve their online information.

In addition, organisations are striving to deploy IoT to minimize human intervention and achieve enhanced quality control.

Tiwari says: “Although the pharmaceutical sector lags behind in implementing cyber security, prevalence of data sharing is compelling companies to look for vendors that can provide integrated security operations and analytics to tackle anomalous behaviour.”