Pharma – 2025 Health IT Predictions

As we wrap up another year and get ready for 2025 to begin, it is once again time for everyone’s favorite annual tradition of Health IT Predictions! We reached out to our incredible Healthcare IT Today Community to get their insights on what will happen in the coming year and boy did they deliver. We in fact got so many responses to our prompt this year, that we have had to narrow them down to just the best and most interesting. Check out the community’s predictions down below and be sure to follow along as we share more 2025 Health IT Predictions!

Check out our community’s Pharma predictions:

Dave Latshaw, CEO at BioPhy
The competitive dynamics of the pharmaceutical industry will undergo substantial reorganization in 2025. AI capabilities will become a critical differentiator, with companies that successfully implement AI solutions gaining significant advantages in drug discovery and development speed, cost reduction, and market intelligence. The ability to leverage AI for personalized medicine development, supply chain optimization, and marketing strategies will increasingly determine market leadership. Companies that fail to adapt to this AI-driven paradigm risk falling behind, while those that successfully integrate AI technologies across their operations will emerge as industry leaders. This transformation will particularly benefit organizations that can effectively combine AI expertise with traditional pharmaceutical knowledge, creating new competitive advantages in drug development efficiency, cost management, and market responsiveness.

The role of AI-native pharmaceutical companies will expand significantly in 2025, building on the momentum of billions in investment from previous years. These companies will continue transitioning from service providers to full-fledged drug developers, with improved clinical trial success rates potentially doubling pharmaceutical R&D productivity. Partnerships between AI-native companies and traditional pharmaceutical firms will become more prevalent, creating hybrid models that combine innovative AI approaches with established development expertise. The focus on personalized medicine will particularly benefit AI-native companies, whose technological capabilities align well with the requirements for analyzing complex patient data.

The pharmaceutical industry is poised for a transformative shift in 2025, with artificial intelligence becoming deeply embedded in core operations. Drug discovery and development will see the most dramatic impact, with AI-powered processes reducing development timelines from 10-12 years to as little as a quarter of that time. AI will become fundamental to drug development processes post-discovery outside of clinical trials, like quality and regulatory compliance, because of the immediate ROI and complexity reduction it can provide. At least a quarter of new drugs will have used AI technologies as a part of the discovery process, marking a fundamental shift in how pharmaceutical innovation occurs. Clinical trials will undergo significant optimization through AI-driven patient recruitment and monitoring, potentially reducing costs and timelines by up to 75%. Supply chain management will become increasingly resilient through predictive analytics and real-time monitoring, while post-market surveillance will benefit from enhanced real-world data analysis capabilities. Perhaps most significantly, the industry will see a decisive move toward personalized medicine, with AI enabling truly individualized treatment approaches based on genetic information and patient data.

Jason Gasper, Chief Commercial Officer at OrderInsite
By the end of next year, I anticipate AI-driven inventory control systems will become the backbone of pharmacy supply chain management. These systems will not only predict demand and minimize stockouts but also optimize inventory levels with unprecedented accuracy. We’re already seeing AI solutions identify prescription drug shortages, allowing pharmacies to seamlessly source stock from alternate suppliers. By analyzing historical data, local demand, and market trends, AI will help pharmacies strike the perfect balance, minimizing both overstocking and understocking to ensure a smoother replenishment process. Cloud-based platforms will further revolutionize this by centralizing inventory management across multiple locations, offering real-time visibility and faster, more informed decision-making. With drug shortages expected to persist into 2025 and beyond, pharmacies that embrace these advancements will be better positioned to ensure patients have access to critical medications when they need them most.

I also foresee real-time inventory tracking, powered by RFID and IoT sensors, becoming a standard practice across the pharmacy supply chain. This technology will enable precise tracking of medications from production to patient, providing pharmacies with automated systems for real-time inventory updates and significantly reducing human error. Seamless integration between front-end operations and back-end supply chains will not only streamline workflows but also enhance accuracy and efficiency. Automated intelligent/smart reordering systems, activated when stock hits predefined thresholds, will continue to gain traction, allowing pharmacies to rely on data-driven replenishment processes that automatically place orders with suppliers as needed. As pharmacies embrace these innovations, they’ll be able to operate more efficiently, ensuring that patients always have access to the medications they need.

As the 2025 deadline for DSCSA track-and-trace requirements approaches, pharmacies are under growing pressure to adopt more advanced inventory systems that meet stringent regulatory standards. Compliance with controlled substance regulations, drug storage protocols, and expiration tracking is driving the shift toward sophisticated, automated solutions. By 2025, these systems will likely integrate compliance features seamlessly, automatically tracking drug expiration dates, managing recalls, and ensuring adherence to evolving government regulations. In parallel, as the risks of diversion, cyberattacks, counterfeiting, and drug tampering rise, blockchain technology will become pivotal in securing the pharmaceutical supply chain. Its ability to provide a transparent, tamper-proof record of drug movement will strengthen trust and safety at every point in the supply chain.

Kim Boyd, Regulatory Resource Center Lead, NCPDP Board of Trustee Member at Point-of-Care Partners
The focus on Pharmacy interoperability will grow. It’s imperative to allow pharmacists to access the right level of clinical data at the right time in order to complete clinical services in the pharmacy setting as well as update the patient record so clinical data generated from a pharmacy clinical service can be shared with the rest of a patients care team. In 2024, the HITAC subcommittee on pharmacy interoperability made critical recommendations. Following those published recommendations, NCPDP established a new workgroup on care coordination that encompasses pharmacy interoperability, Sequoia project established a new Pharmacy Interoperability workgroup, and the NCPDP Foundation funded research and a whitepaper on the current landscape.

Dan Goldstaub, Scientific Co-Founder of PhaseV
AI and machine learning are already making a big impact on drug development, and their influence is only going to grow in 2025 and beyond. As these tools move beyond preclinical applications to play a more pivotal role in clinical trials, they will enable more adaptive and complex trial designs that increase efficiency, reduce costs, and boost success rates. Regulatory agencies like the FDA and EMA are increasingly proactive, recognizing AI’s potential to streamline trials while addressing ethical concerns, including minimizing patient exposure to ineffective treatments. This evolution reflects a broader regulatory commitment to collaborate on AI to improve both trial outcomes and ethical standards. While the industry has historically been cautious, there’s growing recognition that AI can drive smarter, faster, and more responsible drug development. It’s not just a trend, but a reality we fully expect will accelerate in the coming year.

Carolina Haefliger, Head of Transitional Medicine at Debiopharm
AI’s predictive capabilities are paving the way for a more proactive approach to healthcare, where treatments are tailored to the individual needs of patients to improve outcomes and reduce costs. Looking ahead to 2025, AI will continue to transform drug discovery and cancer therapy development, taking these advancements to unprecedented levels. Machine learning (ML) algorithms and advanced data analytics will play an even more central role in enabling researchers to uncover deeper insights into complex diseases and identify drug targets with unparalleled speed and precision. The early stages of drug discovery will continue to see dramatic improvements, with AI accelerating the screening of compounds and significantly reducing the time and costs needed to bring therapies to market. Moreover, the predictive capabilities of AI will drive the evolution of personalized medicine, empowering healthcare providers to proactively tailor treatments to individual patients.

Peter Donnelly, Co-Founder and CEO at Genomics
I predict that we will see greater use of genomics in life sciences drug development. There is now very strong empirical evidence that targets with human genetic support are more than twice as likely to succeed in clinical trials. We will see greater precision in clinical trials, and therefore better and faster innovation coming out of drug development teams in life sciences.

Dr. Tim Church, Chief Medical Officer at Wondr Health
The weight loss industry faces a lot of regulatory uncertainty heading into 2025, particularly for compounded drugs which have historically enjoyed less regulation than FDA-approved drugs. That will unfold in one of two ways: Compounding is either going away, or it’s going to be here to stay forever — an even more radical thought. There will be no in-between. If they stay, they’ll take on a legitimacy we never imagined. That would send shockwaves through the whole pharma industry.

David Benshoof Klein, Founder and CEO at Click Therapeutics
The digitization of pharma pipelines is imminent. After the FDA released draft guidance on Prescription Drug Use-Related Software last year, there has been increasing interest by pharma to enable added benefit claims through the use of software with drugs or software-enhanced drug treatments. The result will be a future where drugs come with a ‘smart’ dosage that combines a highly validated digital therapeutic with traditional pharmacotherapy. These software-enhanced drug treatments will leverage AI-enabled platforms that respond and adapt to patients whether through personalized digital treatment journeys, responsive side effect management, or adaptive dose titration. This emerging category of medicine has the potential to bridge gaps in care and safely treat disease at scale.

Gavin Magaha, PharmD, MS, Senior Director, External Affairs and Policy at Kalderos
As drug discount programs become more complex, there is an opportunity to advocate for new policies and program changes in the 340B Program and beyond that will help make the system work better for all stakeholders, and ultimately support a more viable and sustainable drug discount ecosystem that allows patients to access the affordable medications they need. Evolving technology and innovative companies are helping healthcare providers and manufacturers navigate the increasing complexity of the drug discount ecosystem by bringing key stakeholders to the table to foster seamless communication and collaboration between parties, build trust, and improve transparency and accountability overall.

Honz Slipka, Senior Transparency Specialist at Certara
With limited resources, higher wages, and increasing constraints on time, there is a huge need to make the process of drug discovery and development more efficient. One potential way of doing this is to develop technology that can help automate processing and decrease the amount of human resources necessary to perform the tasks from beginning to end. I think automation will continue to be at the forefront of drug discovery advancement in 2025, but I think the specifics of how this technology will be used will narrow down to a few specific and niche parts of the entire drug lifecycle. Writing documents, proofing evidence & documentation, and biosimulations seem like promising areas that can be improved and expedited by the advancement of technology.

Updesh Dosanjh, Next Generation Technology at IQVIA
The pharmacovigilance (PV) market is projected to grow significantly, reaching $20-30 billion by 2032, driven by increasing case volumes and complexity. Case data has evolved from 2MB to over 20MB per case, incorporating audio, video, and documents, while requiring more sophisticated analysis. The industry faces severe workforce challenges, needing 5,000 additional workers annually with 12% minimal growth rates. An aging workforce and resistance to technological change compound these challenges, particularly in regions like Japan. AI emerges as the primary solution, potentially reducing human involvement from 10 people to 1, or even 1 in 100. Explainable AI (xAI) will be crucial for understanding AI decision-making in healthcare recommendations.

Clinical trials are evolving to emphasize diversity and inclusion, requiring multi-country, multi-ethnicity trials and more complex safety analyses. The industry is shifting toward proactive pharmacovigilance, integrating clinical trials, medical information, safety, and patient engagement data. Successful transformation requires comprehensive organizational change and partnerships with technology providers. Future systems must seamlessly integrate patient devices, healthcare provider systems, and pharmaceutical databases to enable real-time monitoring and immediate response capabilities.

Julie Schulz, MD, MPH, VP of Product at Avalon Healthcare Solutions
The rising demand for expensive GLP-1 medications will have a huge financial impact on health plans and employers in 2025. To control costs and ensure a more equitable distribution of the drugs, insurers will increasingly rely on lab test data and insights to determine who qualifies for GLP-1s and adjust their coverage accordingly.

Ariel Katz, Co-Founder and CEO at H1
I predict that in 2025 there will be global regulations requiring comprehensive diversity plans for all major markets, including the EU and EMEA. As these standards take shape, pharma companies will adopt tools and models to reach broader and more diverse participants. This will push organizations to develop structured diversity strategies and collaborate across regions. While this will likely bring logistical challenges initially, trials will eventually reflect true global populations and lead to more effective treatments.

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time out of their day to submit a prediction to us and thank you to all of you for taking the time to read this article! We could not do this without all of your support. What do you think will happen for Pharmaceuticals in 2025? Let us know on social media. We’d love to hear from all of you!

Be sure to check out all of Healthcare IT Today’s Pharmaceutical content and our other 2025 Health IT Predictions.

As we wrap up another year and get ready for 2025 to begin, it is once again time for everyone’s favorite annual tradition of Health IT Predictions! We reached out to our incredible Healthcare IT Today Community to get their insights on what will happen in the coming year and boy did they deliver. We in fact got so many responses to our prompt this year, that we have had to narrow them down to just the best and most interesting. Check out the community’s predictions down below and be sure to follow along as we share more 2025 Health IT Predictions!

Check out our community’s Pharma predictions:

Dave Latshaw, CEO at BioPhy
The competitive dynamics of the pharmaceutical industry will undergo substantial reorganization in 2025. AI capabilities will become a critical differentiator, with companies that successfully implement AI solutions gaining significant advantages in drug discovery and development speed, cost reduction, and market intelligence. The ability to leverage AI for personalized medicine development, supply chain optimization, and marketing strategies will increasingly determine market leadership. Companies that fail to adapt to this AI-driven paradigm risk falling behind, while those that successfully integrate AI technologies across their operations will emerge as industry leaders. This transformation will particularly benefit organizations that can effectively combine AI expertise with traditional pharmaceutical knowledge, creating new competitive advantages in drug development efficiency, cost management, and market responsiveness.

The role of AI-native pharmaceutical companies will expand significantly in 2025, building on the momentum of billions in investment from previous years. These companies will continue transitioning from service providers to full-fledged drug developers, with improved clinical trial success rates potentially doubling pharmaceutical R&D productivity. Partnerships between AI-native companies and traditional pharmaceutical firms will become more prevalent, creating hybrid models that combine innovative AI approaches with established development expertise. The focus on personalized medicine will particularly benefit AI-native companies, whose technological capabilities align well with the requirements for analyzing complex patient data.

The pharmaceutical industry is poised for a transformative shift in 2025, with artificial intelligence becoming deeply embedded in core operations. Drug discovery and development will see the most dramatic impact, with AI-powered processes reducing development timelines from 10-12 years to as little as a quarter of that time. AI will become fundamental to drug development processes post-discovery outside of clinical trials, like quality and regulatory compliance, because of the immediate ROI and complexity reduction it can provide. At least a quarter of new drugs will have used AI technologies as a part of the discovery process, marking a fundamental shift in how pharmaceutical innovation occurs. Clinical trials will undergo significant optimization through AI-driven patient recruitment and monitoring, potentially reducing costs and timelines by up to 75%. Supply chain management will become increasingly resilient through predictive analytics and real-time monitoring, while post-market surveillance will benefit from enhanced real-world data analysis capabilities. Perhaps most significantly, the industry will see a decisive move toward personalized medicine, with AI enabling truly individualized treatment approaches based on genetic information and patient data.

Jason Gasper, Chief Commercial Officer at OrderInsite
By the end of next year, I anticipate AI-driven inventory control systems will become the backbone of pharmacy supply chain management. These systems will not only predict demand and minimize stockouts but also optimize inventory levels with unprecedented accuracy. We’re already seeing AI solutions identify prescription drug shortages, allowing pharmacies to seamlessly source stock from alternate suppliers. By analyzing historical data, local demand, and market trends, AI will help pharmacies strike the perfect balance, minimizing both overstocking and understocking to ensure a smoother replenishment process. Cloud-based platforms will further revolutionize this by centralizing inventory management across multiple locations, offering real-time visibility and faster, more informed decision-making. With drug shortages expected to persist into 2025 and beyond, pharmacies that embrace these advancements will be better positioned to ensure patients have access to critical medications when they need them most.

I also foresee real-time inventory tracking, powered by RFID and IoT sensors, becoming a standard practice across the pharmacy supply chain. This technology will enable precise tracking of medications from production to patient, providing pharmacies with automated systems for real-time inventory updates and significantly reducing human error. Seamless integration between front-end operations and back-end supply chains will not only streamline workflows but also enhance accuracy and efficiency. Automated intelligent/smart reordering systems, activated when stock hits predefined thresholds, will continue to gain traction, allowing pharmacies to rely on data-driven replenishment processes that automatically place orders with suppliers as needed. As pharmacies embrace these innovations, they’ll be able to operate more efficiently, ensuring that patients always have access to the medications they need.

As the 2025 deadline for DSCSA track-and-trace requirements approaches, pharmacies are under growing pressure to adopt more advanced inventory systems that meet stringent regulatory standards. Compliance with controlled substance regulations, drug storage protocols, and expiration tracking is driving the shift toward sophisticated, automated solutions. By 2025, these systems will likely integrate compliance features seamlessly, automatically tracking drug expiration dates, managing recalls, and ensuring adherence to evolving government regulations. In parallel, as the risks of diversion, cyberattacks, counterfeiting, and drug tampering rise, blockchain technology will become pivotal in securing the pharmaceutical supply chain. Its ability to provide a transparent, tamper-proof record of drug movement will strengthen trust and safety at every point in the supply chain.

Kim Boyd, Regulatory Resource Center Lead, NCPDP Board of Trustee Member at Point-of-Care Partners
The focus on Pharmacy interoperability will grow. It’s imperative to allow pharmacists to access the right level of clinical data at the right time in order to complete clinical services in the pharmacy setting as well as update the patient record so clinical data generated from a pharmacy clinical service can be shared with the rest of a patients care team. In 2024, the HITAC subcommittee on pharmacy interoperability made critical recommendations. Following those published recommendations, NCPDP established a new workgroup on care coordination that encompasses pharmacy interoperability, Sequoia project established a new Pharmacy Interoperability workgroup, and the NCPDP Foundation funded research and a whitepaper on the current landscape.

Dan Goldstaub, Scientific Co-Founder of PhaseV
AI and machine learning are already making a big impact on drug development, and their influence is only going to grow in 2025 and beyond. As these tools move beyond preclinical applications to play a more pivotal role in clinical trials, they will enable more adaptive and complex trial designs that increase efficiency, reduce costs, and boost success rates. Regulatory agencies like the FDA and EMA are increasingly proactive, recognizing AI’s potential to streamline trials while addressing ethical concerns, including minimizing patient exposure to ineffective treatments. This evolution reflects a broader regulatory commitment to collaborate on AI to improve both trial outcomes and ethical standards. While the industry has historically been cautious, there’s growing recognition that AI can drive smarter, faster, and more responsible drug development. It’s not just a trend, but a reality we fully expect will accelerate in the coming year.

Carolina Haefliger, Head of Transitional Medicine at Debiopharm
AI’s predictive capabilities are paving the way for a more proactive approach to healthcare, where treatments are tailored to the individual needs of patients to improve outcomes and reduce costs. Looking ahead to 2025, AI will continue to transform drug discovery and cancer therapy development, taking these advancements to unprecedented levels. Machine learning (ML) algorithms and advanced data analytics will play an even more central role in enabling researchers to uncover deeper insights into complex diseases and identify drug targets with unparalleled speed and precision. The early stages of drug discovery will continue to see dramatic improvements, with AI accelerating the screening of compounds and significantly reducing the time and costs needed to bring therapies to market. Moreover, the predictive capabilities of AI will drive the evolution of personalized medicine, empowering healthcare providers to proactively tailor treatments to individual patients.

Peter Donnelly, Co-Founder and CEO at Genomics
I predict that we will see greater use of genomics in life sciences drug development. There is now very strong empirical evidence that targets with human genetic support are more than twice as likely to succeed in clinical trials. We will see greater precision in clinical trials, and therefore better and faster innovation coming out of drug development teams in life sciences.

Dr. Tim Church, Chief Medical Officer at Wondr Health
The weight loss industry faces a lot of regulatory uncertainty heading into 2025, particularly for compounded drugs which have historically enjoyed less regulation than FDA-approved drugs. That will unfold in one of two ways: Compounding is either going away, or it’s going to be here to stay forever — an even more radical thought. There will be no in-between. If they stay, they’ll take on a legitimacy we never imagined. That would send shockwaves through the whole pharma industry.

David Benshoof Klein, Founder and CEO at Click Therapeutics
The digitization of pharma pipelines is imminent. After the FDA released draft guidance on Prescription Drug Use-Related Software last year, there has been increasing interest by pharma to enable added benefit claims through the use of software with drugs or software-enhanced drug treatments. The result will be a future where drugs come with a ‘smart’ dosage that combines a highly validated digital therapeutic with traditional pharmacotherapy. These software-enhanced drug treatments will leverage AI-enabled platforms that respond and adapt to patients whether through personalized digital treatment journeys, responsive side effect management, or adaptive dose titration. This emerging category of medicine has the potential to bridge gaps in care and safely treat disease at scale.

Gavin Magaha, PharmD, MS, Senior Director, External Affairs and Policy at Kalderos
As drug discount programs become more complex, there is an opportunity to advocate for new policies and program changes in the 340B Program and beyond that will help make the system work better for all stakeholders, and ultimately support a more viable and sustainable drug discount ecosystem that allows patients to access the affordable medications they need. Evolving technology and innovative companies are helping healthcare providers and manufacturers navigate the increasing complexity of the drug discount ecosystem by bringing key stakeholders to the table to foster seamless communication and collaboration between parties, build trust, and improve transparency and accountability overall.

Honz Slipka, Senior Transparency Specialist at Certara
With limited resources, higher wages, and increasing constraints on time, there is a huge need to make the process of drug discovery and development more efficient. One potential way of doing this is to develop technology that can help automate processing and decrease the amount of human resources necessary to perform the tasks from beginning to end. I think automation will continue to be at the forefront of drug discovery advancement in 2025, but I think the specifics of how this technology will be used will narrow down to a few specific and niche parts of the entire drug lifecycle. Writing documents, proofing evidence & documentation, and biosimulations seem like promising areas that can be improved and expedited by the advancement of technology.

Updesh Dosanjh, Next Generation Technology at IQVIA
The pharmacovigilance (PV) market is projected to grow significantly, reaching $20-30 billion by 2032, driven by increasing case volumes and complexity. Case data has evolved from 2MB to over 20MB per case, incorporating audio, video, and documents, while requiring more sophisticated analysis. The industry faces severe workforce challenges, needing 5,000 additional workers annually with 12% minimal growth rates. An aging workforce and resistance to technological change compound these challenges, particularly in regions like Japan. AI emerges as the primary solution, potentially reducing human involvement from 10 people to 1, or even 1 in 100. Explainable AI (xAI) will be crucial for understanding AI decision-making in healthcare recommendations.

Clinical trials are evolving to emphasize diversity and inclusion, requiring multi-country, multi-ethnicity trials and more complex safety analyses. The industry is shifting toward proactive pharmacovigilance, integrating clinical trials, medical information, safety, and patient engagement data. Successful transformation requires comprehensive organizational change and partnerships with technology providers. Future systems must seamlessly integrate patient devices, healthcare provider systems, and pharmaceutical databases to enable real-time monitoring and immediate response capabilities.

Julie Schulz, MD, MPH, VP of Product at Avalon Healthcare Solutions
The rising demand for expensive GLP-1 medications will have a huge financial impact on health plans and employers in 2025. To control costs and ensure a more equitable distribution of the drugs, insurers will increasingly rely on lab test data and insights to determine who qualifies for GLP-1s and adjust their coverage accordingly.

Ariel Katz, Co-Founder and CEO at H1
I predict that in 2025 there will be global regulations requiring comprehensive diversity plans for all major markets, including the EU and EMEA. As these standards take shape, pharma companies will adopt tools and models to reach broader and more diverse participants. This will push organizations to develop structured diversity strategies and collaborate across regions. While this will likely bring logistical challenges initially, trials will eventually reflect true global populations and lead to more effective treatments.

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time out of their day to submit a prediction to us and thank you to all of you for taking the time to read this article! We could not do this without all of your support. What do you think will happen for Pharmaceuticals in 2025? Let us know on social media. We’d love to hear from all of you!

Be sure to check out all of Healthcare IT Today’s Pharmaceutical content and our other 2025 Health IT Predictions.