Final answer:
The pharmaceutical industry's quality management challenges include a lack of productivity, where despite more NCE development, few drugs make it to market. Enhancing R&D, data analysis, and collaboration can help address these issues.
Step-by-step explanation:
The pharmaceutical industry faces significant quality management challenges in improving productivity and reliability in the delivery of software solutions. One major issue is the lack of productivity in terms of the number of new drugs, or new chemical entities (NCEs), that successfully reach the market.
Despite a substantial increase in NCE development, the industry struggles with high attrition rates, where many potential treatments fail during the expensive clinical trial phases, leading to financial losses and reduced output of marketable drugs. To address these challenges, companies may need to focus on streamlining their R&D processes, enhancing data analysis techniques, and improving collaboration within their networks.