Cloud-based COTS solutions are pharma's future in research

Business, technical, and financial incentives are driving the rapid adoption of cloud-based, commercially available solutions in pharmaceutical research and operations, writes Frank Lin, consultant at Halloran Consulting Group, in an Expert View piece.

Where pharmaceutical companies were once required to buy point solutions such as electronic trial master file (eTMF), electronic data capture (EDC) systems, and other applications hosted on-premise to support specific processes and integrate them, that scenario is disappearing.

With it, broader cloud-based solutions and integration platforms are emerging. Life sciences solution providers are broadening their solutions capabilities to support cross-functional processes, allowing for seamless data analysis across a company and more mature quality control models. Many have engineered these solutions in the cloud, or have moved them into cloud-based subscription offerings.