Next in pharma: How can pharmaceutical companies drive value growth?

Most pharmaceutical companies have explored opportunities to apply robotic process automation (RPA) and have developed use cases that leverage artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. But many pharma leaders see scaling these advanced technology plays beyond a handful of pilots as a challenge. Tackling a few high-value use cases in drug discovery or customer engagement helps, but the real opportunity is to reimagine the pharmaceutical company of the future, powered by intelligent technologies across the enterprise. The result will be an organization that can handle more sophisticated decisions with better outcomes and shorter time frames.

Leaders in tackling the human-machine possibilities will start with a clear, top-down vision of what they are trying to achieve. This might include vaporizing millions of hours worth of routine work across the enterprise, increasing speed on cross-functional processes or improving effectiveness. Enterprise-wide change requires a clear vision and specific goals. It also requires upskilling the business to have a stronger sense of what’s possible with predictive analytics and intelligent automation. Individuals should be well-equipped to generate and engage on ideas, and should have incentives to think differently. These technologies are powered by large data sets, so fit-for-purpose data strategies that are linked to the digital products and services they support can better enable scaling.

The drumbeat on value will continue into the future, meaning drugmakers need to enhance their value proposition. While advances in traditional measures of product efficacy and safety are still critical, digital innovations create new possibilities for helping physicians and patients achieve improved outcomes. Tracking digital biomarkers, offering digital therapeutics and innovative clinical decision support tools and creating connected treatment ecosystems offer new opportunities to predict disease progression, engage patients more deeply in their treatment and support their path to success.

Discovering, developing and commercializing these next-generation solutions is a different type of capability. Borrowing lessons learned from the tech industry, leaders in the pharmaceutical sector will have a deep understanding of human-centered design, device/solution regulatory pathways and ecosystem partners that can accelerate the journey. They will redefine operating models to incorporate digital solutions as part of product development and commercialization, starting early in the process. Beyond the direct value generated by these solutions, another important element of the value equation is the information that can be generated by these digital products. Winners in this domain will have great solutions, but they will also be world-class in envisioning what data will be valuable and putting the capabilities in place to take full advantage of it.

Real-world evidence (RWE) is undergoing rapid evolution as its impact deepens in clinical development and expands across the product development life cycle. As pharmaceutical companies look to convert major investments in RWE into real returns for patients and shareholders, the trustworthiness and fit-for-purpose nature of the data sources, the approaches used to convert observations to evidence and the need to upgrade organizational decision-making are important elements in determining the capabilities of RWE in the future.

Real-world data (RWD) and the evidence derived from it (RWE) have become progressively more sophisticated as the patient journey has become ever more digital—from structured data in insurance claims 20 years ago, to the widespread adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) over the last decade and now to sources of near-real-time data directly from the point of care or from patients’ homes and phones. But more data has not always translated into better evidence, a fact that’s acutely understood by regulators and payers. To ensure this proliferation of data is of high quality and reliable, leaders will be out in front to define standards of trustworthiness for RWD and RWE.

Going forward, pharmaceutical companies have an opportunity to expand their collection of RWD and create the analytical capabilities needed to turn these new sources of data into compelling evidence. Beyond data and analytics, changing the organization’s mindset about evidence is a challenge. In the past, product and portfolio decisions often have been weighted toward experimental data from clinical trials and advice from key opinion leaders. RWD provides an additional view, and leaders should ensure this new class of evidence is incorporated into their company’s decision-making processes.

The early adopters of RWE are starting to reap the benefits of their investment, as regulators and payers increasingly recognize its benefits and learn to deploy it effectively. The rest of the pack is looking to leapfrog with vendors and partners that have already learned what didn’t work. Landing as a disruptor, and not as one of the disrupted, means having a leading capability in RWE.

With pricing scrutiny expected to persist, winning and retaining customers to drive volume will be essential to growth. And customers today expect a more digital experience. According to Wunderman Thompson’s research, more than three-quarters (76%) of global consumers say their everyday lives depend on technology, and this figure is even higher for Generation Z and millennials, at 79% and 80%, respectively. Eighty-one percent of global consumers say they “switch on” to unwind, and over half say they are physically (55%) and mentally (56%) healthier, thanks to technology.

As these trends and others like them continue, pharma’s commercial leaders have an opportunity to harness digital technologies to design the differentiated customer experience of the future.

Imagine a deeply immersive virtual reality environment where physicians can experience content (not just access it), interact with peers, ask questions of pharma staff and activate a range of support services. In contrast with a two- to three-minute detail by a sales specialist, this is an environment where a physician could spend a much more meaningful period of time. Predictive analytics would customize the environment for this physician, and orchestrate the right follow-ups based on the experience. Similar environments would be accessible to patients.

The next generation of experiences is just around the corner, and commercial leaders should ensure they are ready. This means strengthening human-centered design skills, shaping partnerships with new types of vendors such as metaverse players, creating branding concepts that are intriguing and unconventional to resonate in a digital-first environment and using the power of predictive analytics to identify and activate customers most effectively.

The coronavirus pandemic upended the traditional engagement model. Companies were forced to adapt in response to the crisis. Going forward, innovating the customer experience will be a source of competitive advantage.

If the pharmaceuticals sector is to outperform in the capital markets, it needs to boost the outlook for future profits and ensure plans are in place to deliver. How resources are allocated across the company is a big driver of both growth and returns. Are costs, capital and people allocated to their highest and best use, as measured by alignment to the strategy and ability to create shareholder value? In most large, complex global enterprises there are organizational realities that work against optimal resource allocation, such as fuzzy priorities, prior-year-budget inertia, “squeaky wheels” and gut-instinct planning.

The ability to align resources with their most valuable use year after year is a strategic capability that can convey a lasting advantage. But it is not easy. Value-based planning requires an objective understanding of where and how value is created in the enterprise (e.g.,products, markets, customers) and how resources are consumed by each of the units. Operational drivers of work (for example, speaker events, customer visits and scientific publications) should be connected to their true cost and tested for alignment to both strategy and value (realizing some activities cannot or should not be measured strictly by return on investment). Productivity should be analyzed through new lenses. For example, you could borrow the working-to-non-working spend ratio used in consumer products businesses to spark ongoing questions about how best to reallocate resources from lower-value to higher-value activities.

Traditional budgeting is not getting the job done, as seen in the sector’s lagging shareholder returns. Value-based planning offers CEOs and their teams a better capability for managing resources and ensuring all of the great work underway within the company translates into stronger results in both the product and capital markets.