Evolution to Digital Drug Delivery Systems

Chapter of the 2025 Global Drug Delivery System Trends Report

4 minute read

Drug delivery systems (DDS) are evolving from standalone mechanical tools into integrated digital health solutions, driven by rising expectations from patients, payers, regulators, and pharmaceutical companies. Today’s DDS must go beyond drug administration to enable features such as digital reminders, real-time data capture, personalized patient support, and remote care integration.

Smart DDS technologies, such as connected autoinjectors, are gaining traction for their ability to monitor treatment adherence, improve dosing precision, and enhance overall safety. As digital health becomes more deeply embedded across therapeutic areas, its impact on the DDS landscape is expected to grow significantly.

This article examines the evolution of drug delivery systems into connected, data-driven platforms and analyzes a key strategic choice for developers—whether to build digital capabilities in-house or partner with specialized connectivity providers to accelerate innovation and integration.

Key Drivers in Digital Solutions Demand

Powerful forces are propelling the shift toward digital DDS, including potential clinical value, data utility, and remote care enablement, although the growing burden of autoimmune, chronic, and allergic diseases remain core market drivers.

Growing interest in digital solutions

The healthcare ecosystem is becoming increasingly digitized, creating a more receptive environment for advanced drug delivery technologies such as connected autoinjectors. These devices can be integrated into broader digital health platforms to support more holistic and personalized patient care.

Increase in self-administration of treatments

Demand is growing for intuitive, self-injection devices because more conditions are now managed at home without direct healthcare supervision. Autoinjectors in particular are valued for their ease of use, safety, and patient-friendliness. Added connectivity features, such as real-time guidance, notifications, and adherence reminders, further support this trend.

Emphasis on real-world data

Digital DDS can capture valuable real-world data, including adherence patterns, symptom evolution, injection timing, and dosage accuracy. This data supports treatment personalization, post-market surveillance, and generation of real-world evidence to substantiate clinical and economic value. Such evidence can facilitate regulatory approvals (e.g., FDA, EMA) and improve market access through HTA and reimbursement processes.

Rising patient engagement and empowerment

Digital devices offer feedback, visual confirmation, and treatment tracking tools that improve user confidence and create a stronger sense of control. This enhances long-term adherence and may improve outcomes, especially in chronic diseases requiring regular self-injection.

Improved dosing accuracy

Digital DDS can enhance accuracy through electronic dose control and automatic logging for each administration. This information, when synced with mobile apps or connected platforms, supports safer treatment management by helping patients follow correct dosing schedules and alerting caregivers or physicians to potential issues, reducing the risk of under- or overdosing.

While miniaturized sensors and connectivity technologies have been available for years, effective integration into drug delivery devices requires the design of a complete connected ecosystem, one that considers every phase of the product lifecycle, from manufacturing and distribution to patient use and end-of-life management

Riccardo Butta, President of Health Solutions

Digital Solution Demand Across Therapeutic Areas

Therapeutic areas with high adherence challenges and long-term self-administration needs, such as diabetes, GLP-1 therapies, pediatric growth disorders, and chronic injectables for rare diseases, have seen the greatest adoption of digital DDS. These indications often benefit from existing digital infrastructure (e.g., glucose sensors, connected inhalers) and are supported by reimbursement models that recognize the value of engagement tools and real-world data. Connected DDS enhance outcomes in these cases by improving adherence, enabling tracking, and supporting evidence generation.

Digital tools are less widespread in oncology, acute care, or breakthrough therapies, where strong clinical efficacy remains the primary driver of adoption. The market impact of digital DDS remains limited in other therapeutic areas, with adoption progressing slowly and selectively. Barriers include:

Regulatory and reimbursement uncertainty (especially for connected components and Software as a Medical Device)
Limited interoperability with healthcare IT systems, complicating data integration
Usability challenges and low digital literacy in some patient groups
Insufficient provider training and incentives to recommend digital DDS
Evolving standards for data privacy and cybersecurity
High upfront investment requirements paired with unclear ROI or lack of payer support

Adoption of digital DDS remains highly indication- and use-case-specific, although pharmaceutical companies increasingly view connectivity as a critical element of the future of drug delivery. Technological innovation is essential but not sufficient; business model innovation is key to unlocking digital value. The market, however, still lacks robust, sustainable business cases that clearly demonstrate cost savings and measurable health outcomes strong enough to convince payers to justify price premiums. This underscores the urgent need to demonstrate the value of digital health solutions.

The main challenge in achieving widespread adoption is not technological but strategic: ensuring patient-centricity and aligning the perceived value for patients, caregivers, healthcare providers, and payers with the total cost, usability, and outcomes of connected solutions. In essence, connectivity must be purposeful, driven by meaningful improvements in patient experience, adherence, and clinical impact rather than by technology alone.

Riccardo Butta, President of Health Solutions

Strategic Decision: In-house Development Versus Outsourcing Connectivity Solutions

DDS providers face a strategic decision as digitalization becomes more central to drug delivery: whether to develop connected DDS capabilities in-house or collaborate with external partners.

Most organizations lack the agility and resources to manage the rapid iteration cycles required for digital development. A growing number of companies is beginning to partner with digital health and electromechanical specialists to accelerate timelines, reduce costs, and streamline integration into broader digital health ecosystems, rather than building internal capabilities. DDS players typically retain control over core hardware components in these collaborations to ensure reliability and compliance, while outsourcing or co-developing the digital and connectivity layers to tap into external innovation and modular design.

For example, Ypsomed, a player embracing these platform-based strategies, retains control over hardware and device IP, including connectivity features, while partnering with companies like Sidekick Health to provide software development and integrate digital layers onto its connectivity-ready injectors.

At Ypsomed, we keep the device development in-house, including the connectivity enabled by the hardware. However, the software layer is not developed internally. For that, we collaborate with partners like Sidekick Health to build the upper layers of the digital ecosystem.

Olga Matveeva, Strategy and Business Development Lead

This modular approach enables flexibility in tailoring the digital experience to different therapeutic areas and user needs, while allowing pharmaceutical clients to define use cases, such as adherence monitoring or patient engagement, later in the development process. This strategy supports adaptability as demand for remote monitoring, real-world evidence, and patient-centric care continues to grow.

Many pharma and DDS players teams still embark on digital initiatives without clearly defined use cases or commercial models. Connectivity should be viewed not merely as a technical enhancement, but as a strategic capability in order to deliver meaningful value. This requires a shift in mindset: defining connectivity objectives early in development, aligning them to measurable outcomes, and ensuring they support broader clinical, economic, or patient engagement goals. Achieving this often means investing in modular, reusable architectures and collaborating with partners that bring both engineering and digital expertise. Interoperability with broader health systems is equally critical to ensure long-term relevance and seamless integration.

Ultimately, digital should be embedded not just within the device, but intentionally across the product and go-to-market strategy to differentiate therapies, enhance outcomes, and drive sustained treatment value.

Until now, there’s been no viable device platform that makes connected, sustainable delivery affordable at scale. Digital and reusable devices were always more expensive. That’s where we can make it better for patients, better for payers, and better for the planet.

Patrick Anquetil, CEO