Mentions of robotics within the filings of companies in the pharmaceutical industry rose 25% between the final quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022.
In total, the frequency of sentences related to robotics between April 2021 and March 2022 was as frequent as in 2016 when GlobalData, from whom our data for this article is taken, first began to track the key issues referred to in company filings.
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When pharmaceutical companies publish annual and quarterly reports, ESG reports and other filings, GlobalData analyses the text and identifies individual sentences that relate to disruptive forces facing companies in the coming years. Robotics is one of these topics - companies that excel and invest in these areas are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.
To assess whether robotics is featuring more in the summaries and strategies of pharmaceutical companies, two measures were calculated. Firstly, we looked at the percentage of companies which have mentioned robotics at least once in filings during the past twelve months - this was 9% compared to 3% in 2016. Secondly, we calculated the percentage of total analysed sentences that referred to robotics.
Of the 40 biggest employers in the pharmaceutical industry, Johnson & Johnson referred to robotics the most between April 2021 and March 2022. GlobalData identified 16 robotics-related sentences in the United States-based company's filings - 0.2% of all sentences. Grifols mentioned robotics the second most - the issue was referred to in 0.08% of sentences in the company's filings. Other top employers with high robotics mentions included Bayer, Cipla and Otsuka.
Across all pharmaceutical companies the filing published in the first quarter of 2022 which exhibited the greatest focus on robotics came from Moderna. Of the document's 2,635 sentences, six (0.2%) referred to robotics.
This analysis provides an approximate indication of which companies are focusing on robotics and how important the issue is considered within the pharmaceutical industry, but it also has limitations and should be interpreted carefully. For example, a company mentioning robotics more regularly is not necessarily proof that they are utilising new techniques or prioritising the issue, nor does it indicate whether the company's ventures into robotics have been successes or failures.
