Ever since the widespread disruption of the pandemic, decision-makers in the life sciences and healthcare sectors have turned their attention to accelerating the pace of implementations for their digital initiatives. The market for IT-led solutions in the life science sector globally is estimated to be worth over USD 62.5 billion by 2033. Clearly, the demand for technology solutions is booming. However, the first step to putting solutions in place is to define the problems that need to be fixed and prioritize those that are more urgent or important than others. So, which are the challenges life sciences CEOs think about the most? What occupies the minds of life sciences leaders?
The top 4 issues that every life science CEO must focus on while attempting to overhaul their digital experiences:
Profitability
Studies by KPMG pointed out that over 56% of life science CEOs expect their business to grow only by 2.5 % or less every year. In focus are the rising costs of R&D coupled with the challenges posed by growing competition and even inflation is leading to pricing pressures. With constrained revenues and higher costs, they have serious concerns about profitability. Profits are linked to R&D practices within life science companies and weaker profits could lead to budget cuts to R&D, but lower innovation puts them out of sync with market evolution.
From a technology perspective, life science companies can leverage smarter tech to improve profitability in a variety of ways. For one, technology can help drive better pricing models for their offerings. For example, using AI to determine the most optimal price ranges for various products, treatment lines, services, etc., can help build a better balance between affordability and financial outcomes. Sweet spots in pricing can be obtained from historic data coupled with competitor pricing intelligence. Additionally, the use of AI to accelerate R&D initiatives can also help lower costs significantly. For example, AI can help in faster drug constituent analysis, accelerated data comparisons, effective behavioural study, etc. which are prominent techniques in R&D.
Regulatory oversight
The pharma and life sciences industries are undoubtedly among the world’s most regulated domains. From local health bodies to national and international regulators, there are tons of compliance, quality, and validatory requirements set for products created by life sciences companies. Adhering to strict standards, maintenance of compliance mandates, periodic audits, and regulatory reporting are activities that leave zero scope for errors and misses. For life science CEOs, the key is to ensure that they operate the business smoothly even when the regulatory landscape is extremely dynamic.
The key to always staying in sync with regulators is to establish a high level of end-to-end visibility and control over key processes in operations. Be it at the manufacturing level, R&D, storage, vendor management, procurement, etc. the need is to have proper traceability and accountability for every micro stage in the product or service creation workflow. The use of powerful data management, audit, and reporting tools with strict compliance workflows integrated into them is the perfect solution for regulatory worries.
Quality management
Both customers and regulatory bodies worldwide have a strict emphasis on product quality in the life science industry. Given the scope of usage which may encompass life-saving procedures and treatments and support products, quality credibility is of high importance. However, siloed data management, diverse vendor and procurement portfolios, coupled with poor visibility into supply chain credentials can hamper the ability of life science organizations to consistently and predictably maintain high-quality levels.
For CEOs, the best option would be to encourage standardization, traceability, and end-to-end visibility in activities ranging from procurement to production and distribution. Using a plethora of digital platforms and tools, they can drill down to granular data insights about how every stage of the production process is complying with agreed quality SLAs and standards. Transparent reporting at all levels helps to build accountability for actions by each entity in the supply chain thereby allowing the brand to embrace quality as a competitive advantage.
Innovation
Staying ahead of the competition will continue to be a key priority for life sciences CEOs in the coming years. They will strive to achieve competitive strengths in taking new products faster to the market with features and capabilities that are unique, proven, and resonant with customer demands. However, CEOs know that achieving this pace of innovation requires a strategic collaboration between different departments, seamless R&D, information management, and tracking of the progress of initiatives.
Deriving value from innovation exercises requires a high level of digitization of core processes. In other words, CEOs must be able to transition the business’s core capabilities into a productized entity that can be continuously enhanced and strengthened by new digital innovations. This will allow them to meet the expectations of customers and stay ahead of market trends.
The bottom line
Life sciences organizations are poised to enter a remarkable phase of growth enabled primarily by digital experiences across their operational landscape. However, embarking on this transformational journey would require leaders to establish a clear digital roadmap and embrace technologies that drive value for everyone involved. Such a high level of strategic digital guidance requires the help of an established technology partner like Trinus. Get in touch with us to learn more.