Pharmaceutical software development has been less impacted by the COVID-19 crisis as it facilitates remote working and already had group collaboration tools and software processes in place to facilitate this type of work, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. 

Johanna Swanson, Product Manager at GlobalData, comments: “Numerous Software development systems have adopted a more agile development framework that allows them to respond more rapidly to changing demands. While other markets have been more heavily impacted by COVID-19, software development is persevering and taking advantage of new niches such as delivering applications for tracking and monitoring the spread of the disease.”

Software such as enterprise resource planning, laboratory information management, statistical analysis and clinical trial management systems can be used remotely and are designed for collaboration. Remote chatting, virtual meetings, shared document tracking and forums are also often already in place, as well as the methods and processes needed to track information on product development and maintenance.

Furthermore, most workers have laptops or mobile devices that allow them to access their work remotely and to bring their work home with them to handle late night issues or overtime. Most pharmaceutical software is used collaboratively in already globally distributed systems to handle developers in differing regions.