As global pricing reforms squeeze margins and reshape supply chains, manufacturers can restore confidence through smarter systems, connected data and greater operational resilience – and the path to affordability starts on the factory floor.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing is under more pressure than ever. Around the world, pricing reforms, energy volatility and political short-termism are forcing companies to rethink where and how they operate. The rules that shaped the last decade of life sciences investment are changing fast.

In the US, the Inflation Reduction Act gives government agencies the power to negotiate drug prices directly, cutting into revenues that once fuelled global R&D. In Europe, rebate systems are tightening and regulators are demanding more transparency around pricing models. Even traditionally innovation-friendly countries are struggling to balance affordability with competitiveness.

That imbalance is reshaping investment. Companies are taking a harder look at where they build and expand, and the most stable policies and lowest energy costs are often now outside traditional Western life sciences strongholds.

It’s no coincidence that Singapore, India and South Korea are attracting a new wave of pharma investment. They’ve learned what matters: efficiency, agility and digital maturity. They’re creating manufacturing environments that are fast-moving, well-connected and ready to scale.

The question now isn’t whether global drug pricing pressures will change where we manufacture – it’s how we respond. If affordability is the goal, we need to start treating production efficiency with the same urgency as drug pricing itself.

Drug pricing dominates headlines, but the real battle for affordability happens inside our factories. Long before a medicine reaches a patient, cost is set by what happens on the line.

And what we see in life sciences manufacturing is increasing complexity – the processes are long, the compliance standards are exacting and the margin for error is almost non-existent. This comes at a price.

This complexity, coupled with increasingly global supply chains, makes it harder to keep control without connected systems.

‘The question now isn’t whether global drug pricing pressures will change where we manufacture – it’s how we respond’

Across the industry, teams still rely on paper records and unlinked screens to manage complex processes. Everyone’s doing their part, but without shared, real-time data, decisions come too late and the costs are already locked in.

Too often, automation has been added in layers rather than designed as one ecosystem. One team runs batch control, another handles energy management, another is buried in quality logs. They’re all doing their job, but none of the systems are talking. The result is duplication, delay and constant troubleshooting.

We’ve automated, but we haven’t integrated. Automation alone won’t make us competitive anymore. The real advantage now lies in connection – linking what we already have so people can see what’s happening, understand it and act before issues snowball.

If there’s one gap that still holds many sites back, it’s the one between the factory floor and the enterprise systems above it.

Production teams have their control systems, energy sits somewhere else and quality is managed in another environment. When these systems don’t talk, you can’t get a full picture of what’s happening and you can’t react in time.

The answer isn’t to rip everything out and start again. Most facilities already have the tools they need, the challenge is bringing them together – software platforms that connect production, process and utility data that bridge the divide – giving everyone the same operational picture and the same confidence in what they’re seeing.

This is where IT and OT integration matters. By linking plant-level systems with enterprise infrastructure, you move from isolated insights to a continuous flow of information across the operation. That’s what turns real-time data into real-time decisions.

When process, energy and quality information sit in one view, teams can understand not only what’s happening but why. They can trace a deviation to its source, see its impact immediately and act before it becomes a problem. Visibility becomes control, and control becomes reliability.

The benefit isn’t just technical. It changes how teams work. When everyone is working from the same information, collaboration speeds up, decisions are made with confidence and improvements can be tracked in real time. That’s the power of integration – turning data into alignment and alignment into progress.

When plants struggle, it’s not usually because of a lack of expertise, but a lack of visibility. Without reliable data, you can’t see where problems start or how far they spread. When information moves freely between automation, utilities, quality and performance systems, that picture comes together. Teams can act early instead of late.  Maintenance becomes planned, investigations close faster and yield improves. You can feel the difference in how a site runs.

Energy use is another part of the picture that’s often treated as a given. Energy prices in the UK and much of Europe remain among the highest in the world. Governments have a role to play, but manufacturers can’t wait for policy. Energy needs the same focus as production performance. The same systems that improve yield and reduce downtime can show where energy is being wasted – and that visibility gives engineers the control to fix it.

Energy efficiency can’t sit in a sustainability report; it belongs in the control room. When energy, process and quality data come together, cost control becomes part of operations. That’s how manufacturers take back control in a market where global pricing pressure isn’t easing any time soon.

When investment decisions are made, digital maturity now carries as much weight as scale or location. The days of relying on legacy status or national reputation are gone. Global pharma is looking for predictability – and that comes from data, not geography.

The sites that win new products and funding are those that prove they’re stable, efficient and ready to scale. Those that can’t demonstrate that end up being first on the list when networks are consolidated.

A connected, data-driven site is more flexible, quicker to validate and faster to release products. When something changes – a process tweak, a new formulation, a tighter regulation – those teams can adapt without losing weeks of productivity. That adaptability doesn’t come from luck; it comes from visibility.

Often, it’s the smaller improvements that make the biggest difference: linking existing systems; automating repetitive documentation; using live data to manage energy. None of it sounds glamorous, but it’s what builds long-term competitiveness and it’s what makes investors sit up and take notice.

It’s not the size of the facility or the number of sensors on the line – it’s the consistency of performance that counts. If a site can deliver that, it earns confidence – and in a market this unpredictable, confidence is currency.

Competitiveness doesn’t start in the boardroom – it starts on the line. It’s built on hundreds of daily decisions: how fast an issue gets spotted; how smoothly a batch moves through validation; how quickly a process restarts after maintenance. Those details decide whether a plant stays viable or becomes another statistic.

We don’t need to wait for the next government initiative or digital roadmap. Most of what’s needed is already in place – the systems, the data, the expertise. What’s missing is connection. When that data comes together, people make faster, smarter decisions. Problems shrink, output grows and energy stops being a fixed cost no one can explain.

Governments still have a part to play, particularly around energy reform and long-term investment incentives, but that can’t be the whole solution. If the industry wants to stay competitive, it needs to show progress from within. The sites that prove they can operate efficiently, sustainably and with digital confidence will be the ones that keep investment here.

There’s unlikely to be one big turning point for UK life sciences. Progress will come in smaller, deliberate steps – the plants that connect what they already have, the teams that trust their data, the leaders who back progress instead of waiting for permission.  That’s how we make the UK’s manufacturing base harder to ignore, and how we build competitiveness that lasts.

Martyn Williams is Managing Director at COPA-DATA UK