Pharmaceutical Industry and Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is a synergic, visual method of presenting a real-life environment by adding sensory stimuli like sound, and visual elements giving a feeling as if the digital content is actually with us within our environment. Augmented Reality or AR is an entirely immersive process with a VR glass that covers the eyes entirely. It shuts out the external world, offering a real-world experience.

Unlike Virtual Reality where the computer-generated data is seen by the user, Augmented Reality focuses on the real world by adding elements that can be seen for enhanced user experience.

AR has become a trending topic of the 21^st century and has found umpteen applications in the Retail, Manufacturing, Healthcare, and Pharmaceutical industries. The best example of usage of Augmented Reality is the IKEA Mobile app, Nintendo’s Pokémon Go app, Google Pixel’s Star War Stickers, and Loreal Makeup App to name a few in Retail and Manufacturing. AR is also used to enhance the visualization of CT scans and MRI scans for surgical visualization, and vein visualization in the healthcare sector.

The Pharmaceutical industry is also not far behind.  Due to the ongoing pandemic situation, the pressure on the Pharma industries to develop drugs in a faster but curated way has given AR the front seat as its involvement can create exciting possibilities for the industry.

Usage of Augmented reality in the Pharmaceutical Industries

v  AR in Drug Discovery- AR can be deployed for data visualization in Drug Discovery. Manually checking the genetic data related to specific microbes takes a lot of time. Using AR by doctors and scientists can help save time since data visualization with AR helps the R&D team to study the characteristics of such particles and helps in drug discovery to combat the microbes be it bacteria or viruses. Also, the information collected by AR tools can be shared with other scientists working from remote locations. Thus, discoveries made in one part of the world can be shared in no time with another part of the world, thereby increasing coordination within the global pharmaceutical community.

v  AR for patient education- The percentage of educated patients are more nowadays, and they would like to know the details of their treatment. Patients are anxious about the procedures they would be passing through in the course of their treatment. Hence, AR is the perfect tool as educating patients has become a necessary task these days. Patients can be given a detailed understanding of their medical condition including the action of medicines in their body using AR. The 3D visualization can pass on a vivid understanding of these essentials rather than a written document or a brief of the treatment by the doctors.

v  Innovative drug Information- AR helps a patient take a look at how a medicine works in his/her body instead of the long description put in the bottle.

v  AR in Product Demonstration- When a new drug is produced by a pharma company after extensive research, its usage needs to be showcased in an understandable way to hospitals, regulatory bodies, and buyers. AR comes into play during this time. Sales meetings can be simplified with AR-based tools. Presentations that involve AR-generated imagery can be conducted and viewed from any part of the world. Hence, the assembly of people in one location can be averted. Also, the demonstration can be seen by viewers on their phones and tablets preventing needless spending on expensive VR-like headsets. Boehringer Ingelheim, a Germany-based pharma company launched one of its products named Spiriva Respimat, an inhaler using AR in 2013. 3D animations and gesture-based controls were shown in an innovative demonstration session to exhibit the features of the product and how the product could be used.

Augmented Reality in Medicine Packaging Industry- An extended opportunity for Drug Makers

The total spending on AR and VR was about USD 12 billion in 2020 globally estimated to increase to USD 72.8 billion by 2024. And drug-making companies won’t want to miss their opportunity of grabbing the deal!

Today, the marketing campaigns and sales of products are done to reach the end goal which is customer satisfaction, educate people about the products, and in return get customer loyalty. But in today’s Gen Z world where none are willing to read through the leaflets of each medicine where its usage and applications are mentioned in tiny letters, AR has given some relief to the medicine packaging industries creating enhanced user experience by making the “Read Instructions” more fun.

By scanning the medicine package with the help of a QR code, the product description starts appearing with explanations, while extra features like live commercials can also be added. Augmented Reality is used not only for marketing but also to provide knowledge to novice users of drugs.

Conclusion

AR remains the huge untapped market for Pharmaceutical companies, once leveraged to its full potential, it can create wonders.

If organizations adopt AR for the applications in Pharma Industries, it will be able to boost companies’ productivity, ROI, and compliance with regulations. It is only one leap before Drug companies reach LEGO with AR, where the advantages of building something in the real world might be combined with virtual imagination.