Market Challenges And Opportunities

Global Pharmacy Automation Market- Drivers

Growing prescription volumes: The increasing burden of chronic diseases across the globe is leading to a significant rise in prescription volumes worldwide. As per the World Health Organization (WHO), chronic diseases accounted for approximately 60% of all deaths globally in 2020. Conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer result in patients needing lifelong prescription medication. As the prevalence of these lifestyle-driven illnesses increase, which is fueled by factors like sedentary routines and unhealthy diets, the number of prescriptions being filled at pharmacies is witnessing a steady surge year-on-year. More prescriptions equate to higher workloads and demand on pharmacists. Manual processes cannot keep up with the rising volumes efficiently. This is driving the need for automation in pharmacies to improve productivity and fulfill demand.
Increasing need to reduce medication errors: The increasing need to reduce medication errors is one of the key factors promoting rapid adoption of pharmacy automation systems globally. Medication errors can cause severe health issues, extended hospital stays, and even mortality. As per the data by WHO, medication errors affect over 7 million people annually across the world and cost around US$42 Bn in direct health care costs. A majority of medication errors occur during the prescription and drug dispensation process in pharmacies. Healthcare systems and pharmacies around the world are facing huge pressure to enhance patient safety and minimize potential medication errors. Pharmacy automation technologies are helping in reducing human error rates significantly by streamlining critical processes like inventory management, prescription filling and dispensation. Automated systems ensure accurate identification of drugs, proper labeling, and packaging of medications. They also facilitate better tracking of expiration dates and automate replenishment orders to avoid stock-outs. This enhances compliance to safety protocols and minimizes risks of dispensing wrong drugs or expired medications.
Growing need to minimize manual processes: The growing need of automation across various pharmacy processes is one of the key factors driving the growth of global pharmacy automation market. With increasing prescription volumes and strict regulations, pharmaceutical companies are relying more on automation solutions to minimize manual errors and improve workflow efficiency. Automation helps pharmacies in packing, dispensing, inspection, and distribution of medications at a much faster rate while maintaining high level of accuracy. Some of the major pharmacy processes being automated include dispensing, packaging, labeling, inspection, and storage of medications. Automated dispensing cabinets have gained widespread adoption as they allow drugs to be dispensed securely while tracking their use in healthcare facilities. Similarly, automated packaging and labeling systems help pharmacies to meet stringent packaging requirements for unit-dose medications at scale. These systems ensure that are drugs are packed correctly with accurate labeling which enhances patient safety. Automated inspection and quality control solutions are also being used to verify accurate medication dispensing and minimize errors.

Global Pharmacy Automation Market- Opportunities

Growth opportunities in emerging markets: Emerging markets in developing countries present a great opportunity for growth in the global pharmacy automation market. As healthcare infrastructure and accessibility improves across regions like Asia Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa, there will be an increasing demand for automation technologies in pharmacies. Countries are recognizing the potential of pharmacy automation to reduce dispensing errors, improve safety standards, provide 24x7 services, and optimize workflow processes. This allows pharmacists to focus more on patient care activities. As per World Bank data, emerging economies like India, Indonesia, and countries in Africa region have been experiencing substantial economic and infrastructure development over the past decade, thus leading to rise in household income levels and better access to healthcare. Rising patient volumes in these developing healthcare systems will require pharmacies to serve larger populations efficiently. Pharmacy automation systems help address this need by assisting in high-volume dispensing, inventory management, and packaging of medications. For example, with automation robotic systems that are filling over 450 prescriptions per hour in the U.K., reduces dispensing time by 30%. This enables pharmacies to manage higher throughputs.
Adoption of pharmacy automation in retail pharmacies: The adoption of pharmacy automation solutions in retail pharmacies presents a major growth opportunity for the global pharmacy automation market. Retail pharmacies have traditionally been labor-intensive with pharmacists and technicians spending considerable time performing manual, repetitive tasks like prescription dispensing, inventory management, and packaging. However, with mounting workloads and the need to reduce errors, retail pharmacies are increasingly automating such processes. Automating dispensing can help fill prescriptions much faster and more accurately through the use of robots, carousels and other automated equipment. Similarly, implementing automation for inventory tracking and packaging reduces the need for manual data entry and packaging by staff. This in turn, allows pharmacies to redirect labor towards more patient-facing activities.
Development of customized pharmacy automation solutions: Developing customized pharmacy automation solutions could unlock significant opportunities in the pharmacy automation market. With the healthcare industry facing growing pressure to reduce costs and improve efficiency, there is a need for automated solutions that can streamline pharmacy operations. Customized solutions allow pharmacies to automate specific parts of their workflow that are based on their unique needs and space constraints. This leads to better optimization as compared to one-size-fits-all approaches. Several mid-sized and small pharmacies have limited resources for expensive and large-scale automation. Customized solutions featuring modular and flexible designs are more affordable for these pharmacies. They allow automating few critical tasks initially and expanding the system gradually. This presents pharmacy automation providers an opening to cater solutions to a much larger customer base. Customized solutions also give independent and specialized pharmacies tools to efficiently handle complex orders and specialized medications. With rising chronic diseases and an aging population, demand for specialized pharmacy services is growing.

Global Pharmacy Automation Market- Restraints

High cost of dialysis equipment and procedures: The high costs associated with automation equipment and technologies are one of the major factors restraining the growth of global pharmacy automation market. Setting up an automated pharmacy involves substantial capital investments in machines, software, mechanical components, and technical support staff. While automation promises to improve efficiency and reduce errors, the initial setup costs are not affordable for many smaller and community pharmacies. According to data from the World Bank, the average cost of installing a basic automated medication dispensing system ranges between US$ 100,000 to US$ 300,000. More sophisticated robots for automation of compounding, packaging and other tasks can cost over US$ 500,000. When smaller pharmacies consider these high initial costs of equipment along with additional operational and maintenance costs, it negatively impacts their return on investments and payback periods. This deters them from automating pharmacy functions like dispensing, inventory management, and packaging. Frequent upgrades needed to integrate with other hospital information systems lead to additional operating expenses over time.

Counterbalance: While automation promises long term efficiency benefits, bridging the affordability gap through financing options, incentives or trade-offs is essential to increase adoption rates globally and boost the market's growth potential.

Lack of expertise and reluctance to adopt new technologies: The reluctance to adopt new pharmacy automation technologies is one of the major factors restraining the growth of the global pharmacy automation market. Traditionally, pharmacies have relied on manual processes to carry out dispensing and inventory management functions. The workers have developed expertise in these manual methods over many years of experience. Transitioning to new automated systems requires overhaul of existing workflows and processes which many pharmacists are hesitant to implement due to the perceived disruption and lack of familiarity with new technologies. This reluctance stems from the fact that automated solutions often require upfront capital investments and operational changes that can be daunting for smaller pharmacies with tight budgets and limited information technology resources. Maintaining and operating new automated systems also requires expertise that is often lacking within traditional pharmacy staff. This poses a challenge as pharmacies may not have dedicated on-site technicians or other personnel with the technical know-how to deal with issues in automated machinery. System breakdowns or malfunctions could significantly impair pharmacy operations and affect patient services if the staff is not well-versed in troubleshooting the automated equipment. This further contributes to hesitancy among pharmacists who are concerned about potential disruptions that may occur due to technical glitches if proper training and support is not provided.
Concerns regarding workflow, integration, and scalability: Pharmacies are facing major challenges in optimizing their workflow as the adoption of automation increases. Implementing new automation solutions often disrupts the existing pharmacy workflows which causes delay in order filling and reduction in productivity. Pharmacies struggle to integrate multiple automation solutions from different vendors as they use different software platforms and protocols. The lack of integration creates data silos and leads to duplicate data entries, higher chances of medication errors and inefficiencies in operations. This integration issue demotivates pharmacies from further automation scale-up. Pharmacies hesitate to automate at large scale due to uncertainties around how their future workflow would change with addition of new technologies. Predicting staff requirements, skill-sets and responsibilities becomes difficult during pharmacy-wide automation implementation and optimization. This uncertainty holds back pharmacies, especially independent ones with tight budgets, from automating at an enterprise level. They prefer incremental automation introductions to study and adapt to workflow changes.

Counterbalance: Proper training should be provided to the pharmacy staffs to carry out the smooth maintenance and operation of the automated systems.