Healthcare industrial PIM: Mastering product data in a highly regulated market
In the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, a product is never just a product.
It is an up-to-date composition, validated packaging, compliant statements, an accurate leaflet, consistent visuals, reliable logistical data, and content tailored to markets, partners, and distribution channels. And all of this must be ready at the right time.
During a launch, a formula change, a packaging update, a range extension, or a regulatory update, it is not just the product that is under pressure. It is the entire information chain that accompanies it.
In this context, performance does not depend solely on innovation. It also relies on the ability to structure, govern, and distribute reliable, compliant, and up-to-date data, drawing on unified repositories (MDM, PIM, DAM).
The healthcare and pharmaceutical manufacturing market: a complex and demanding environment
The sector operates within a particularly demanding framework. Medicines, medical devices, parapharmacy products, health nutrition, food supplements, or dermo-cosmetics: each category must comply with its own rules, its own standards, and its own distribution obligations.
The figures for the French market illustrate the scale of what is at stake:
- €26.2 billion in net turnover for medicines on the regulated market in 2023.
- €2.151 billion for the French self-medication market in 2024.
- €35.6 billion for the cosmetics industry in 2024 (including €22.5 billion in exports).
- €1.353 billion for food supplements (an increase of 9.6% in 2023).
Leaflets, composition, claims, regulatory information, visuals, packaging, logistical data, translations, marketing content: all this information must be consistent, traceable, validated, and available without delay. Product data is no longer merely operational support; it is becoming a lever for regulatory control and business acceleration.
Why the ERP and PLM combination is no longer enough to govern product data
In the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, product data never lives in a single tool or within a single team. It circulates between R&D, regulatory affairs, quality assurance, marketing, and the supply chain. Historically, manufacturers have relied on two expert systems to manage it:
- PLM (Product Lifecycle Management): It drives product development, technical data (R&D, formulations, components), and its industrial lifecycle.
- ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning): It centralises management, reference, logistical, stock, and pricing information.
The gap in omnichannel distribution: Although essential, these two tools struggle to manage media, legal documents, complex translations, or local requirements. Above all, they are not designed to distribute data externally.
In practical terms, if your R&D validates a formula change in the PLM, the information will not automatically carry over to the leaflets or e-commerce listings. The marketing department manages visuals on one side, while regulatory affairs handle mandatory statements on the other.
This fragmentation has direct consequences on the market:
Health and financial risk: In March 2025, the Boots chain had to recall an entire batch of paracetamol due to a simple labelling error mentioning aspirin on the inner packaging.
Blocked international sales: A medical device manufacturer exporting to Germany could see their product validation completely blocked in pharmacies due to a simple UDI (Unique Device Identification) number error that wasn’t updated across their different systems.
👉 To go further, discover our global data governance solution for Healthcare and Pharma.
The added value of MaPS Health & Care: creating continuity
This where a unified platform like MaPS Health & Care comes in. It replaces neither the PLM nor the ERP; it connects to them.
Thanks to our unified platform, data modules no longer operate in silos, but form a continuous value chain to build your repository:
1. The foundation (MDM – Master Data Management) to structure your ecosystem
It lays the foundations of your organisation. This is where you define your global data models and classifications, and centrally manage information from your third parties (supplier laboratories, distribution networks). This strict framework is ready to accommodate your products.
2. The engine (PIM – Product Information Management) to ensure data reliability
Directly connected to the MDM, the PIM centralises each product record. It is the collaborative space where your teams enrich, check, and validate the completeness of technical, regulatory, and marketing information before any omnichannel distribution (Example: Swissmedic approval for Switzerland, or trilingual leaflets validated by the AFMPS in Belgium).
3. The proof and illustration (DAM – Digital Asset Management)
Finally, the DAM automatically links to the PIM product records. It allows you to securely attach validated media as well as essential regulatory assets (PDF leaflets, safety certificates) to each product, with strict version control.
Secure Artificial Intelligence at the service of industrial excellence
Artificial Intelligence promises to revolutionise the industry. However, according to a McKinsey study (2024), 85% of AI projects fail due to a lack of usable data. AI does not replace good organisation: it leverages it.
The MaPS System platform was designed to mobilise the right AI at the right time, while ensuring absolute security through true data segregation.
Once your data foundation is governed, AI becomes a powerful engine for your operational teams:
- Supply Chain control and reliability: AI analyses your records to instantly detect critical anomalies (weight inconsistencies, aberrant dimensions, customs code errors). It extracts logistical data directly from supplier PDFs and automatically classifies your products according to their constraints (e.g., controlled temperature storage).
- Compliance monitoring across your distributors: Keep control of your brand image. AI can analyse your resellers’ websites to ensure that the displayed information is strictly compliant with your up-to-date repository.
- Quality analysis for R&D (Feedback loop): AI massively analyses consumer reviews to detect physical flaws (e.g., hard-to-open packaging) and reports the information back to the Quality department.
- Data modelling and document enrichment: During a launch, AI automates the creation of your data model and accelerates the enrichment of your records through text extraction (OCR) from packaging photos.
Mastering complexity at scale: the example of our manufacturing clients
Our manufacturing clients rely on strict data governance to manage complex catalogues and secure their omnichannel or international distribution strategy:
Laboratoire Therascience
The group centrally manages more than 2,000 references (including the complexity of active ingredients, excipients, and galenics) to adapt and distribute them specifically across 20 countries without any manual re-entry.
Olyos Group
This industrial pharmaceutical group has centralised and structured a catalogue of 3,000 references spread across more than 20 brands (Laboratoire des Granions, Eafit, Somatoline, etc.) to automate and secure its omnichannel distribution to mass retail, specialised retail, and marketplaces.
Regain control of your healthcare product data
In a market where every piece of information counts and regulatory requirements continue to evolve, mastering product data becomes a competitive advantage as much as a compliance imperative.
With MaPS Health & Care, healthcare and pharma manufacturers have a reliable foundation to centralise, govern, enrich, and distribute their data at scale.
F.A.Q : PIM industriel santé
No. The ERP and PLM manage internal development and logistics very well, but they are not designed for omnichannel distribution. The PIM connects to them to adapt and transmit this data (leaflets, media, e-commerce listings) to the external market.
Yes. It centralises your legal documents (leaflets, safety certificates) and guarantees through strict workflows that only information validated by regulatory affairs is published, thus avoiding non-compliance.
Yes. These three tools form a continuous value chain: the MDM structures your repositories (the foundation), the PIM ensures product information reliability (the engine), and the DAM manages and secures your media and PDF documents (the proof).
Yes. The platform guarantees true data segregation connected to your client account, independently of public AI providers. You can therefore safely use AI to check your logistical data or translate your product records.
Yes. By centralising your information, the PIM facilitates adaptation to local regulations (e.g., UDI numbers, specific formats) and automates translations, allowing for rapid distribution to new markets without multiplying manual data entry.
