The market

Extending the lifecycle of a product can be crucial to a company's success. In the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, for example, product lifecycle management (PLM) is playing an increasingly important role – from the development of a drug to its long-term establishment on the market. This is a relatively new trend, since as little as ten years ago drug manufacturers were still concentrating primarily on getting their products to market. They have since been forced to expand their focus: for a start, the cost of developing new active ingredients has risen and new substances involved are increasingly complex, with the result that R&D takes longer. Fewer new drugs reach the market these days as a consequence, and the patents on most existing medications are on the verge of expiring. In other words, not only getting a drug to market quickly but establishing it a long-term presence is gaining in importance.

An extensive study published in 2006 by the consultancy Capgemini revealed that over 90 percent of pharma industry decision makers regard PLM as a necessity, and felt that cultivating and implementing a consistent PLM strategy was vital in the early stages of developing a new drug. A PLM is often the only way to achieve fast and long-term market success.