Pharma sector suffers longest downtime disruptions says report

The IDS-INDATA report suggests the interruptions in the sector last an average of eight hours and result in losses of up to £5 million per hour.

Sector-wide, pharmaceuticals faces between £500 million and £1 billion in losses due to extended shutdowns this year, it claims.

And it adds, overall, UK and European manufacturers are likely to lose more than £80 billion due to downtime in 2025 alone.

“Manufacturers are grappling with aging infrastructure that not only leads to mechanical failures but also increases vulnerability to cyber attacks,” said IDS-INDATA chief information security officer Ryan Cooke.

“Without a proactive approach to predictive maintenance and digital resilience, these disruptions will continue to escalate.”

The research suggests that other process industries are also affected significantly by downtime incidents. 

While pharmaceutical stoppages tend to last longest of any sector and equate to between 225 and 400 hours per year, both the food and chemicals sector report more hours wasted.

Food manufacturers record multiple minor stoppages on a weekly basis, topping 440 hours annually.

In the chemicals industry, where continuous processing is common, the downtime figures are far higher and range between 400-600 hours yearly.

The report details that key drivers of downtime vary between sectors. Food processing problems are largely attributable to ageing machinery and infrastructure, while regulatory and compliance issues predominate for chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

However, labour shortages and skills deficiencies – a long running concern for manufacturing – continue to affect all three sectors.