Empowering the pharmaceutical workforce for the digital future

Abstract

The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a rapid digital transformation. These changes are reshaping drug substance and drug product development and manufacturing, creating both opportunities and challenges that span pharmaceutical sciences, data science, and automation engineering. However, significant skills gaps persist, limiting the sector’s ability to fully leverage digital technologies and sustain innovation.

This paper explores the shifting digital and data science skills needs within the pharmaceutical industry, with a focus on industrial pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences in the UK and Europe. We examine the key technological transformations reshaping the sector, the evolution of job roles, and the attributes required of the future workforce. Building on these insights, we propose an integrated approach to skills development that spans the entire career lifecycle – from embedding digital competencies in higher education to supporting lifelong learning through flexible, industry-aligned continuing professional development.

Addressing these skills gaps requires coordinated action from academia, industry, and policymakers. By fostering a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and adaptive learning ecosystem, the pharmaceutical sector can equip its workforce to thrive in a rapidly changing landscape and continue improving global health and wellbeing.

Introduction

The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a period of rapid technological and operational transformation. Driven by advances in automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and data science, the shift towards Industry 4.0 and, more recently, Industry 5.0 is changing how medicines are developed, manufactured, and distributed (Arden et al., 2021; Ntamo et al., 2022; Anthwal et al., 2024; ISPE, 2024a; Renda et al. 2021). These frameworks promote not only technical innovation and efficiency but also resilient, human-centric, and sustainable approaches to industrial practice (Xu et al., 2021).

For pharmaceutical manufacturing, this transition brings new opportunities for accelerating development of sustainable processes and products, and improving product quality, process robustness, and supply chain resilience. Smart manufacturing systems, continuous processing, real-time data analytics, and digital twins are being adopted to increase agility, flexibility, and responsiveness whilst reducing the environmental impact of the industry. However, realising the full potential of these innovations requires a workforce equipped with the right combination of technical, digital, and transferable skills.

Historically, the pharmaceutical sciences and fields such as data science, IT, and automation engineering have operated in silos within the pharmaceutical industry with limited interaction outside of specific projects. Professionals in chemical and formulation development, manufacturing, and quality assurance have often relied on manual processes and legacy systems. Digital and data science expertise was positioned peripherally and treated as a service function rather than an integral part of day-to-day development and manufacturing operations. This separation has hindered the full potential of data-intensive development and manufacturing approaches.

A fundamental shift is now underway, as the industry transitions from merely bridging disciplines towards their full integration. As digital tools and data-driven methods become ubiquitous across pharmaceutical development and manufacturing, collaboration between scientific, engineering, and data domains is now essential. This integrated approach enables more agile, responsive, and sustainable manufacturing systems supporting real-time process monitoring and control, predictive maintenance, and continuous improvement.

Recently, the concept of Quality by Digital Design (QbDD) has been proposed as an evolution of Quality by Design which explicitly embeds model-based development, digital twins, and advanced analytics within process and product design. QbDD promotes digital evidence generation and design-space exploration to reduce the experimental workload and accelerate robust and sustainable process development (Mustoe et al., 2025).

Evidence from across Europe and beyond shows that the pharmaceutical workforce is already evolving in response to these changes. Industry reports including those from the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) (ABPI, 2022, ABPI 2025b), the World Economic Forum (WEF) (World Economic Forum 2023, World Economic Forum 2025a, World Economic Forum 2025b), and McKinsey & Company (McKinsey & Company 2020) highlight the growing demand for data scientists, automation specialists, and digitally proficient process engineers in pharmaceutical settings. At the same time, traditional roles such as formulation scientists, analytical chemists, and manufacturing operators are expanding to incorporate digital tools and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

This workforce transformation presents challenges at multiple levels. At a university level there is a need to integrate digital and data science skills into pharmaceutical sciences education to prepare the next generation of the workforce. Whilst for the existing workforce, ongoing upskilling and reskilling through continuous professional development (CPD) is essential. Addressing these challenges requires a coordinated approach across the talent pipeline; from higher education and vocational training through to industry-led skills initiatives and national workforce strategies.

This paper explores the evolving digital and data science skills needs of the pharmaceutical industry, focusing particularly on drug substance and product development and manufacturing. We first examine how the sector is changing and how job roles are evolving in response. We then outline skills and graduate attributes required for this transformation and explore the pathways through which these skills can be developed: from formal education to lifelong learning. Finally, we discuss the need for a robust, collaborative skills ecosystem and highlight real-world examples and recommendations for building a digitally proficient pharmaceutical workforce.

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Natalie Maclean, Susanna Abrahmsén-Alami, Catriona Clark, Frederik Dörr, Alastair Florence, Jarkko Ketolainen, Morten Lindow, Jérôme Mantanus, Jukka Rantanen, Gavin Reynolds, Amy Robertson, Daniel Markl, Empowering the pharmaceutical workforce for the digital future, European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Volume 220, 2026, 107449, ISSN 0928-0987, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejps.2026.107449.

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