The Industrial Internet of Things: Importance inImproving Pharmaceutical Operations

Abstract

Industry 4.0 is revolutionizing the manufacture of pharmaceuticals through the incorporation of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The IIoT enhances process efficiency, product quality, and regulatory compliance by enabling intelligent production equipment, automated quality control, and real-time supply chain traceability. This review presents the latest technological developments and practical industrial applications to examine how the IIoT enhances manufacturing precision, data traceability, and operational reliability in pharmaceutical production. Key enablers, including predictive maintenance, electronic batch records, and blockchain for logistics, are evaluated for efficiency and compliance potential. The paper has also highlighted key challenges such as cybersecurity vulnerabilities, interfacing with legacy equipment, and inertia to digitalization. It also examines the next up-and-coming trends, including digital twins, edge computing, and 5G infrastructure that will power new levels of industrial innovation. The results offer an in-depth insight into the disruptive power of the IIoT and suggest strategic directions for key stakeholders pursuing data-driven, compliant, and globally responsive pharmaceutical operations.

Received: 14 September 2025 | Revised: 3 November 2025 | Accepted: 11 December 2025

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support this work are available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

Author Contribution Statement

Wesam Fatafta: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration. Konstantin Koshechkin: Investigation, Supervision. Aseel Alshoraihy: Software, Validation, Investigation, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. Najm Al-dain Al-sameeai: Methodology, Resources. Ali Ibraheem: Conceptualization, Software, Resources, Visualization. Mohammad Nazeer Masal: Data curation. Abdulwahid Mohammed: Writing – original draft, Project administration