TL; DR
Speed, flexibility, and agility, anchored around the patient experience, fueled by digital and analytics, have become legitimate currency to generate value for big pharma.
We explore 3 examples.
COVID has taught Big Pharma and Life Sciences institutions a solid lesson in 2020 that will change how the sector and actors operate forever: Slow and inflexible won’t work. Not for molecules moving to market. Not in clinical trials. Not in supply chain, fraud detection, quality assurance, procurement, or partner communications. Not anywhere.
Speed, flexibility, and agility, anchored around the patient experience, fueled by digital and analytics, have become legitimate currency in generating value. Consider these three critical applications:
Track and Trace. Everyone wants perfect information, realtime, on their medical supply chains. And that doesn’t exist, for the most part. As Big Pharma prioritized their investments, molecules, research, trials, compliance, market access, pretty much everything came before Supply Chain modernization – after all, the supply chain cost is buried in COGS, and analysts aren’t asking questions about COGS in earnings calls.
Enter COVID, and the DSCSA – both of which – one practically, and one legally, dictate that Big Pharma needed to develop the agility to provide medical supply chain information faster and more accurately than ever before. The industry has responded via blockchain, and collaborating in ways not seen before; This article by McKinsey summarizes both blockchain and digital opportunities in the supply chain. A perfect example is the Mediledger Network, detailed in the article – a consortium of manufacturers, distributors, technologists all working to solve medical supply chain visibility, transparency, quality, and timeliness through blockchain. Pilot programs are underway, and look promising.
Clinical Trials. For years, we’ve heard the feedback….clinical trials are…. costly. Slow. Location selection is difficult. Patient enrollment and retention matters. It’s intrusive and difficult to collect data, report on efficacy and tune trial precision. It’s widely acknowledged improvement is available – streamlining clinical trial costs and efforts through of digital technologies, while moving more towards a patient-centered trial experience.
Here comes COVID….on cue. The unprecedented speed and scale of trials needed, worldwide, to combat COVID became the mother of invention, Digital patient recruitment and retention met the challenge for speed; data collection innovation (e.g., wearables, IOT) improved speed and patient experience; and once evidence has been generated, using AI / ML and predictive analytics to tune / adjust the therapies. This article in Nature does an outstanding job, from an academic point of view, of outlining the opportunities available.
Counterfeit / Substandard Goods. Pre-COVID, it was estimated that 10% of the world’s medicines are counterfeit, with additional irregularities from substandard medicines – lack of quality, dosages cut, formulas changed. In the early phases of the pandemic, N95 knock-off mask production flourished. And when providers can’t get quality medicines, and patients don’t receive the therapies and treatments they need, the entire ecosystem suffers. The situation is summarized well in this article from Northeastern University.
Enter COVID – with a supply constrained vaccine (assumed) for the medium term, combined with the desirability of the vaccine (s) being high – negate a deadly illness, get back to ‘normal’ life, earn a living – the motivation and opportunity to make, copy, distribute, and use bad medicine exists in spades. Digital track and trace, as outlined above, will – along with digital forensics of payments / money flows, as well as coordination and reporting vertically across the supply chain. Big Pharma will have the agility to maintain the integrity of the product through the supply chain.
It’s worth considering that digital track and trace can also be applied to reverse logistics as well…ensuring that returned medicines are genuine and the chain of custody / transport is known and transparent.
Solera Strategies 