Background: The Industrial Internet of Thing (IIoT) provides an extensive variety of applications for manufacturing practices. For getting access to the industrial control systems through the Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs), the connection to networks brings the possibility to adopt new user authentication methods. Pharmaceutical users having authorization access to the HMIs are able to change operational parameters that can affect the drugs’ formula, which could have serious consequences and negative impacts for pharmaceutical enterprises. The traditional authentication process for this context is based on username and passwords, with a high frequency of re-authentication needs, generates friction for the direct users, while also reducing productivity of the organization. In the existing literature, none previous research about user authentication for pharmaceutical HMIs was found.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the problems caused by the use of passwords for user authentication in HMIs and to analyze the potential benefits and challenges of implementing a frictionless user authentication method for the specific context of the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, in order to fulfill this purpose we proposed three research questions.Method: The study follows inductive research approach by using a qualitative method. We conducted a case study with one pharmaceutical company. Qualitative interviews with HMI users and managers are used to collect the primary data. We reviewed pharmaceutical industry regulations and procedures to gather secondary data. A thematic coding technique is used for categorizing and analyzing the empirical findings, in combination with a framework developed from the literature review.3Conclusion: The study addressed the HMIs’ authentication process issues caused by using password-based method, which can be summarized in not being user-friendly, reducing productivity, consuming resources, and compromising compliance with regulations. The authors proposed framework that integrates the criteria of security, user friendliness, simplicity, regulatory compliance and costs for comparing and selecting a solution within the pharmaceutical context. Regarding the potential benefits of implementing a FUA method for HMIs in the pharmaceutical company, they can be categorized by improve user friendliness, security, compliance, and simplicity. The findings also reveal the potential challenges for implementing a FUA method for HMIs. Given the complexity of the manufacturing equipment and industrial regulations, there are both technical and management challenges associated with the implementation of a new authentication scheme. The regulatory requirements are based in IT, Operation, and QA needs.