Intelligent Biopharma
Forging the links across the value chain
The pace and scale of medical and scientific innovation is transforming the biopharma industry. The need for better patient engagement and experience is spurring new business models. Data generated, captured, analysed and used in real time by innovative medical devices is biopharma’s new currency.
A key differentiator for companies is the extent to which they are able to generate insights and evidence from multiple data sources. Consequently, digital transformation is a strategic imperative.
The Intelligent Biopharma series outlines how artificial
intelligence-enabled technologies will impact the biopharma value chain and accelerate biopharma’s digital transformation.
The rise of AI across biopharma
Although there is a high level of innovation in the industry, biopharma companies are facing a complex and challenging environment due to increased competition and research and development research and development (R&D) cycle times, shorter time in market, expiring patents, declining peak sales, pressure around reimbursement and mounting regulatory scrutiny.
As we have shown in our series of reports on ‘Measuring the return from pharmaceutical innovation’, these factors are contributing to an alarming decline in the projected return on investment that large biopharma companies might expect to achieve from their late-stage pipelines, threatening their long-term futures.
Digital transformation could provide a lifeline to biopharma research and development (R&D) and help reverse this trend. Digital transformation will also impact beyond research and development (R&D), as companies look to improve their operational performance, productivity, efficiency and cost-effectiveness across the entire biopharma value chain.
Digital transformation will also impact business models, the development of new products and services, and how companies engage with health care professionals, patients and other customers. Ultimately, digital transformation is the next step in the evolution of biopharma companies. Embracing digital transformation will enable biopharma companies to innovate new products and services, engage customers more effectively and execute processes more efficiently.
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Forging the links across the value chain
The pace and scale of medical and scientific innovation is transforming the biopharma industry. The need for better patient engagement and experience is spurring new business models. AI is rising across biopharma.
Powering drug discovery with AI
While drug discovery has led to many life-saving and life-enhancing clinical treatments, it is also a long, expensive and often unsuccessful process, with many areas of unmet need. AI-enabled solutions are transforming the process and enabling the development of more precise targeted treatments. This is shifting health care towards a future where medicine is more personalised, predictive, preventative and participatory.
Intelligent clinical trials: Transforming through engagement
With the traditional clinical trial model proving to be a slow and expensive process, biopharma companies are starting to explore the use of AI technologies to optimise the area. Implemented effectively, AI may be able to improve trial design, analysis of results and real-world evidence, and automate time-consuming processes. The availability of rich data sets and AI-driven analytics could also result in the development of highly effective personalised therapies without the need for large-scale clinical trials.
Intelligent drug supply chain: Creating value from AI
AI technologies have the potential to transform manufacturing and supply chain management by allowing real-time, end-to-end visibility of workflows. Data-driven processes can support better planning, inventory management, demand forecasting, logistics optimisation, workforce planning and procurement. Use of AI, including dynamic digital supply networks using blockchain and robotic process automation, can allow greater product visibility and enable biopharma companies to meet the demands of next generation products such as cell and gene therapies which require a new level of large-scale precision.
Intelligent drug launch and commercial
End-to-end visibility across commercialisation could have significant benefits to biopharma companies. Using AI technologies can help companies better coordinate product launches, improve patient engagement, help with physician decision support and marketing operations, and predict market access and pricing decisions.
Post Market Surveillance and Patient Support Programmes
Post launch, biopharma companies may need interoperable health data to track and engage with patients remotely, an area that many biopharma companies and start-ups are targeting. AI-enabled patient support programmes could transform biopharma's relationship with customers, improve enrolment, adherence and retention, and deliver a better overall patient outcome.
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