Digital Transformation in Pharma: Study Finds 70% of Projects Fail in India

A new study by Vector Consulting Group reveals that nearly 70% of digital transformation projects in India’s pharmaceutical sector fail despite companies investing heavily in IT systems. Large pharma firms are spending between ₹50 crore and ₹75 crore every year on digital tools, but most projects remain underutilised or get scrapped due to poor adoption and execution challenges.

High Investments, Low Returns

The research, which covered 28 CXOs from companies with over ₹1,000 crore in revenue and detailed interviews with 12 industry leaders, shows a clear mismatch between the scale of digital investments and the results achieved. Surprisingly, 89% of pharma companies still rely on spreadsheets for critical operations, even after deploying advanced digital systems.

Nearly three-fourths of the surveyed companies admitted to abandoning at least one IT tool in the last three years, citing weak adoption, redundancy, or lack of system integration as key reasons.

Persistent Operational Challenges

Despite deploying demand planning solutions, dashboards, and lab management systems, pharma firms continue to face major supply chain and production issues:

• 93% reported stockouts of essential medicines.
• 84% faced ongoing forecasting errors.
• 76% experienced delays in batch releases.

These issues underline how technology rollouts often fail to translate into operational improvements.

The Root Cause: The G.A.P. Framework

Vector’s study points to what it calls the “G.A.P. framework” as the root cause of failures:

• Gaps in defining the actual problem before project rollout.
• Abandoning projects soon after go-live without addressing adoption or data challenges.
• Persistent user resistance that prevents tools from being used effectively.

The report highlighted failed rollouts of CRM tools, lab management systems, and inventory dashboards, while noting that re-implementations with tighter scoping and adoption planning achieved better success.

Also Read – India’s pharmaceutical sector fail

Expert Insights

“Technology itself isn’t the issue,” explained Chandrachur Datta, Partner at Vector Consulting Group. “The challenge lies in how companies approach digital transformation. Unless the GAP is addressed, even advanced tools, including AI, will fail to create measurable results.”

Takeaway for Pharma Companies

The study underscores that without addressing cultural and execution gaps, IT investments worth hundreds of crores risk going down the drain. As India’s pharmaceutical sector continues to grow, companies looking to strengthen their digital backbone must focus not just on deploying technology, but also on problem scoping, adoption planning, and change management to ensure sustainable results.