It’s clear that COVID-19 has shifted everything. From the ways people travel to the workplace to the medical and pharmaceutical industries, nothing is the same as it once was. The pharmaceutical industry experienced significant changes and shifts due to COVDI-19. It felt like for two full years, this coronavirus was all there was out there. But thanks to the hard work of researchers, medical scientists, and people coming together from all over the world, the pharmaceutical industry was able to thrive, innovate, and more. Here are the main ways that COVID-19 affected the pharmaceutical industry.
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Increased the Market Size
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, there has been a major shift in market dominance. As some sectors slowed to nearly a crawl, the pharmaceutical industry didn’t see a major decline. COVID-19 helped them to gain a greater market share through many different avenues. Not only through the introduction of an experimental vaccine, but also through the use of other medications that were used to help fight the disease in the hospitals and medical facilities. This opened up many job opportunities as well, and it hasn’t slowed.
Forced to Innovate Quickly
The emergence of a strain of coronavirus that spread around the world forced the pharmaceutical industry to innovate very quickly. There wasn’t time for the typical processes, and this meant sending medications, vaccines, and other treatment options to the medical providers with very little knowledge of long-term consequences. While this led to some mistakes, it also helped the pharmaceutical industry to make improvements much more quickly than they would have in the past. This fast-to-market innovation has led to further medical revelations that will be used for future treatments.
It Revealed Problems With the Medical Supply Chain
When most of the world relies on one nation to create most of its medical supplies and medications, there is a problem when that nation shuts down. As the supplies are depleted, shortages ensue. This means that areas that desperately need certain medications are unable to get them, causing more loss of life.
The pandemic revealed many issues with the current medical supply chain. It showed where there needed to be redundancies, and where pharmaceutical companies would do well to have manufacturing facilities in more than one country. One of the most innovative solutions early in the COVID-19 pandemic was when American companies started producing face shields and masks for use in hospitals. This innovation helped save many medical workers who needed the PPE to care for patients safely.
Going forward, the pharmaceutical companies have started looking for multiple suppliers for creating various pharmaceutical products to ensure that in future emergencies, there would be no shortage of essential supplies.
Reduced Innovations on Other Medical Advancements
Sadly, during COVID-19, other medical research took a back seat to what was happening with this coronavirus. This meant that cancer research, autoimmune research, and research for neurological disorders were all slowed or stalled. This means that in many ways, we are now years behind in much-needed treatments for these diseases. COVID-19, while a major issue, is not the only medical problem that people deal with. Mental health conditions, for instance, were largely overlooked because of the focus on COVID-19. Pharmaceutical companies need to continue to gain ground in creating treatments for these and other diseases as well. This means that finding better treatment protocols for people who cannot leave home would be beneficial in the long run.
They Employed the Use of Influencers on Social Media
During the height of the pandemic, there was a lot of talk about COVID-19. This meant that regular people were asking questions, seeking treatment options, and more. To help combat the spread of misinformation and to ensure that sick people could get treated appropriately, pharmaceutical companies used influencers on social media.
These people helped spread important information to their followers to ensure that the messaging from the pharmaceutical companies was consistent. For the first time, the industry saw how powerful using influencers can be. While marketing companies have been using these people for years to promote other products, it was only because of COVID-19 that the pharmaceutical companies were able to realize the benefits for themselves.
COVID-19 changed everything and impacted the pharmaceutical industry in many positive ways.
