Digital Transformation in Pharma: A Blueprint for Leaders

In the past decade, I’ve probably come across a thousand articles on digital transformation. And by now, the point’s abundantly clear to me: Digital transformation is the future. It’s a necessity. It’s the way to stay ahead of the competition. But most articles I’ve read on this topic have discussed digital transformation quite vaguely.

As a business owner, I understand why digital transformation is important. I understand some tools I’ll need to implement to get the ball rolling. But how do I get there? As a leader, what changes do I need to bring to the organization? What should be my priorities? The answer’s nowhere to be found.

So, I did the research, and present to you the answers. This simple guide aims to help all pharma leaders understand the steps they need to take to transform digitally. So, let’s begin!

Why Does Digital Transformation Matter in Pharma?

Digital transformation will change how pharma companies operate, innovate, and compete. Digital strategies can:

1. Enhance operational efficiency: Automation and AI enhance the efficiency and accuracy of all processes, from drug discovery to manufacturing and marketing, and reduce manual tasks and costs. Want to know more about improving operational efficiency? Read more about the best practices to boost pharma operational efficiency.

2. Accelerate drug development: Advanced data tools accelerate the identification of promising drug candidates. This can speed up clinical trials and reduce clinical trial costs using real-time data and virtual trials.

3. Help stay competitive: As competitors adopt new technologies, they become more efficient. The transformation ensures your company can retain its competitive edge in the market. 

How to Take Charge of Leading the Digital Change?

Managing digital transformation in pharma needs organizational change, innovation, and regulation-compliant strategies.

Develop a unique digital vision.

Pharma executives must align digital initiatives with corporate goals, such as simplifying drug development or boosting patient care. For example, a company looking for better patient outcomes can set checkpoints and use digital tools to track progress. Want to know more about upcoming tools? Read our article on the Top 7 AI tools transforming pharma.

Make the most of data and analytics



It's essential to base your decisions on data. Invest in analytics software that can track information about patient needs and market trends and show you how well your business is running.  

Develop partnerships with digital leaders

Get consultants/experts who can determine your needs and guide you through the transformation. These experts can guide you through upcoming and popular technologies, decide whether or not you need them and implement them for you.

Promote a culture that prioritizes digitization

Develop a company culture that prioritizes digitization. Implement technologies and processes on all management levels to ensure company-wide compliance.

Techniques for Managing Digital Transformation

The key to managing digital transformation is a clear vision, practical execution, and constant adaptation. Here are a few essentials for a successful management of digital transformation:

Ensure executive buy-in and support

Digital transformation in pharma requires strong executive support to ensure success. You can help the team embrace digital change by communicating with them and providing resources for all initiatives.

Align technology with business goals

Keep your efforts aligned with your goals to achieve them. This will also help you understand where to invest and which technologies to use to improve your company's operational efficiency.

Implement agile methods

By using iterative development and regular feedback, you can adapt to new technologies and changes in the market more efficiently. 

Continuous training and skill development

Training gives staff the skills to keep up with the company’s digital transformation. Creating a culture of continuous learning ensures the staff’s skills are up-to-date and the processes are efficient.

Mindset Shift Needed at the Leadership Level

We’ve already discussed the steps leaders need to take to control digital change in their respective organizations. However, behind these steps is another important change, in the leadership themselves. This change is a mindset shift. Leaders need to redefine the way they think about some common techniques to create and foster digital transformation. Here are some examples:

Digital = Business Strategy

Most people consider digital transformations as “tools”. For example, when you implement an ML model to simplify drug discovery, you may explain to your team, “This is an excellent tool that will cut down on the development timeline.” However, this mindset needs to change. Digital transformation needs to be viewed as a business strategy. When it’s considered a driver of growth and innovation and a competitive advantage, all members will be open to digital transformation.

Digital = Safe Experimentation

Leaders with a traditional mindset often look at ways to minimize risk and avoid failure. In doing so, they stick to validated systems, which often become outdated. However, leaders must overcome their fear of risk and consider digital transformation as safe experimentation. For example, they should embrace test-and-learn approaches instead of becoming fixated on “proven solutions”.

Digital = Data-Driven Decision Making

Traditional leaders often stick to learning experiences when making decisions, which can easily put a company behind in today’s rapidly evolving landscape, where there’s little scope for prior experience. Instead, leaders must look beyond their gut feeling and experience to data. Data-driven decision-making should be critical, and all decisions should be based on evidence.

These mindset shifts are the key to successful digital transformation in any company. Many leaders have adopted a similar mindset at the right time to fuel their company’s growth. Here are a few case studies of successful pharma transformations.

Three Case Studies of Successful Digital Transformation in Pharma

Pfizer’s AI Transformation

Pfizer’s digital transformation included several key initiatives that helped them improve their manufacturing uptime, supply chain agility and drug discovery cycles. Of these initiatives, two are most notable:

• Collaboration: Pfizer partnered with IBM Watson and XtalPi to integrate AI and molecular simulations into its drug delivery process.
• Smart technologies: It also deployed two smart technologies, namely, digital twins and IoT sensors, in its manufacturing facilities. Both technologies aimed to better manufacturing operations by predicting equipment failures before they happened.

Novartis’ End-to-End Transformation

Novartis launched an end-to-end business transformation that facilitated improved operations. For example, their key initiatives helped Novartis reduce clinical trial time, make better marketing decisions, and increase the efficiency of R&D pipelines. Here are some key initiatives in this process:

• Novartis Biome: A digital innovation hub was launched for fostering partnerships with startups and research teams. Novartis allows teams to co-develop solutions along with specific therapeutic offerings by providing resources and opportunities.
• New Tools: Novartis has also implemented AI platforms and cloud-based analytics to increase the efficiency of R&D and commercial operations. For example, AI-driven image analysis has been implemented for dermatology.

Merck’s Increased Productivity

Merck integrated various technologies over time to increase its lab’s productivity, reduce manufacturing downtime, and better control product quality. Two among their various initiatives stand out:

• Smart Labs: Merck created smart labs comprising IoT, AR/VR, and robots to improve the output by automating repetitive tasks, experimentation, and documentation.
• Digital Twins: Merck also uses digital twins in manufacturing for simplifying predictive maintenance.

These companies are an excellent example of how continuous digital transformation steps can boost growth. Of course, not all of this depends only on the leaders. It’s also necessary to build digital capabilities internally.

How to build digital capabilities internally?

For employees to become a key part of the digital transformation, leaders need to include them. Here are a few key steps to build internal digital capabilities.

Upskill the workforce

Develop role-specific digital learning programs that will help the relevant teams understand, learn and become proficient in digital transformations. For example, R&D teams can be taught about AI’s use cases for drug discovery, marketing teams can be taught to utilize predictive analytics tools, and clinical teams can be taught to use IoT and remote monitoring.

Built in-house talent

Hire experts like cloud architects, digital product managers, and data scientists who will help in the digital transformation process of the company and ensure the company doesn’t have to rely only on external partnerships to upgrade digital capabilities.

Foster cross-functional collaboration

Encourage agile working methods to speed up processes. Furthermore, embed digital tools in daily operations and not just in labs so that all team members are equally part of the digital transformation process.

Overcoming Common Challenges in Digital Transformation

Digital transformation in pharma comes with specific challenges. Some ways to deal with them are:

• Addressing resistance to change: Employees might hesitate to change and use new technologies. To solve this, build a culture that supports change. Offer to train them to better understand how to integrate the tools in their work to simplify it.
• Managing compliance and new ideas: Consult specialists to ensure new ideas meet company expectations. 
• Managing data security concerns: Ensure compliance with regulatory guidelines by implementing robust cybersecurity measures. Update your security and encryption systems to safeguard against security risks and protect sensitive data.

Bottom Line

You know the important points by now: Pharma digital transformation can improve patient care, speed up medicine discovery, and boost the productivity of pharma companies. But what you should understand is that you, a Pharma leader, are at the forefront of this change because you decide the company’s direction. Are you likely to face challenges during this process? Yes, of course. But the only way to solve them is digitally. Without digital transformation, you’ll not be in the competition. It’s like pitting a person with a wooden stick and a matchbox against each other–we know who’s going to win. 

Pharma executives will likely face several challenges when implementing new technologies and tools. However, backing your decisions with data and cooperating with tech leaders will ensure all hurdles are overcome and no challenges remain. This article has highlighted four unique methods for managing digital transformation. If you liked our insights on digital transformation, check out our article on Pharma Manufacturing 4.0, which addresses several vital technologies shaping this highly regulated but essential industry.

FAQs

1. Which new technologies are influencing the pharmaceutical industry's digital transformation?

The key technologies are AI (to find new drugs), blockchain (to ensure data safety), and advanced data analytics (to develop personalized medicine). Digital health platforms (to increase patient participation) and the Internet of Things (to help patient monitoring).

2. How do pharma companies calculate the ROI from their transformation strategies?

ROI can be evaluated by determining cost reduction, enhanced productivity, expedited medication development, and enhanced patient compliance and satisfaction. These indicators can be monitored so that pharma companies can evaluate the success of their transformation initiatives.

3. How does the shift to digital transformation affect the pharma supply line?

Digital transformation enhances visibility and management and increases supply chain efficiency. For example, blockchain minimizes the risk of counterfeiting and improves traceability/transparency and IoT and AI boost monitoring and demand forecasting.

4. What are the leadership priorities for digital pharma transformation?

Pharma leadership has three priorities for digital transformation:

• Clearly defining digital vision, initiatives, and business objectives.
• Driving the team to adopt a digital-first mindset, mostly through actions.
• Fostering collaboration and cross-functional team collaboration to ensure no gaps.

5. How to foster a digital-first culture?

To foster a digital-first culture, leaders must demonstrate, by example, a mindset shift, in which they embrace data-driven decision making, continuous learning, and agile working methods