Innovation holds immense promise for pharma, specifically artificial intelligence (AI), but navigating challenges will be essential for responsible and impactful progress. At the recent PM360 SPARK Innovation Summit, this statement was validated as panelists, attendees and experts alike all shared and empathized about the common challenges and barriers pharma is facing today.
Overall, challenges encompass technical complexities, ethical considerations and societal impacts. As the use of AI increases, concerns about the privacy and security of data have become more prevalent. Shifting the mindset and ways of working is a significant challenge, often making up two-thirds of the problem, while the tech/model is only one-third. The unpredictability of GenAI, such as hallucinations, ghosts and errors, adds to the complexity. There is also a need for a solid, clean data foundation to power reliable AI, and a requirement to open up AI to a broader employee base, but with appropriate guardrails in place. Further, scalability of a robust AI platform and its ability to be trained underscore these technical complexities.
The importance of overcoming these challenges and innovating cannot be overstated. McKinsey estimates a $60-110B opportunity for pharma in leveraging AI to transform their operations and business model. This is a significant incentive for organizations to innovate.
How to Turn Challenges into Action
This incentive to innovate means pharma has the opportunity to turn these challenges into action, but some still question how and where to begin.
- Balance Innovation: Balance both “little I” – continuous innovation that can be driven by employees to improve current offerings, experiences and operations – and “Big I” – disruptive/breakthrough innovation that drives step changes in current offerings and operations. The latter needs more autonomy to incubate, test and learn.
- Pharmatize AI: Use the 3 R’s – Responsibility, Reliability, ROI – to make AI more suitable for Pharma.
- Demonstrate Impact Early: Show impact early via pilots, measure impact/outcomes as soon as possible, and optimize/adjust before scaling.
- Partner with Innovators: Partner with companies that have already built solutions and platforms that deliver innovative, compliant solutions using GenAI to accelerate your internal efforts.
As a leader in transforming commercialization, EVERSANA is leveraging real innovations to drive real impact for patients, providers and pharma companies. Here are tangible examples of how innovation is being applied across the product and patient journeys.
- AI-driven Content Generation: Automating significant parts of MLR review.
- Synthetic Content: Rapid personalization of patient and HCP education.
- AI-driven Orchestration: Delivering next best experiences for HCPs and patients.
- Patient Finding and Self-Diagnosis Aids: Improving time to diagnosis and therapy.
- Medical Information Chatbots: Using GenAI to provide around the clock medical information to clinicians.
- Patient Self Service “Digital Concierge”: Reducing the friction in the patient on-boarding and Rx experience.
Innovation in pharma is not just about overcoming challenges, but turning them into action with impact. With the right approach and partners, pharma can leverage AI to transform their operations and seize the opportunities that lie ahead.
Ready to innovate? Schedule a call to learn more about our AI Workshop designed to help turn your challenges into action.