Data Is The Cornerstone To Drive Digital Transformation In Pharma Industry: Sameer Amte

What are the big shifts that you have witnessed in the pharma industry in the past two years?  

Increasing demand for more holistic care models and experiences, emergence of remote healthcare services and new ways of working have posed several challenges for the industry. The pharma industry is faced with the need to produce and deliver more effective, affordable, personalised treatments and solutions. The pandemic has significantly impacted the health delivery paradigm, and the ripple effects have altered doctor-patient behaviours and expectations, requiring a significant change in how pharma companies engage with and support doctors. To deliver better patient and customer outcomes, a digital-first approach must be adopted by the leadership team and deployed across all functions – from research and development, supply chain, patient services and support functions at a pace never seen before. 

The disruptions and demands caused by the pandemic led pharma companies to re-evaluate their operations, while delivering products and solutions to patients and companies around the world. This was largely possible due to the accelerated adoption of digital technologies, in addition to a renewed sense of purpose, focus and commitment to patients, doctors and overall healthcare. 

Accenture’s 2021 Tech Vision report found that 99 per cent of executives surveyed from the Indian pharma sector cited the pandemic as an unprecedented stress test for their organisations, requiring them to transform their strategy, processes and workforce. While the digitalisation of the pharma sector was already underway, led by a few companies, it is now at a tipping point.  

What are the top digital trends you foresee shaping the future of the pharma industry? 

While we are looking at digital trends, it is important to understand some of the global trends shaping the pharma industry which include emergence of New Science (a dynamic combination of the best in science and health technology), modernisation of commercial models, transformation in the modalities and access to care constructs and the personalisation of therapies. In an Indian context, the extent and timeline of the impact of these global trends might differ but it goes without saying that the future of the pharma industry is digital. Digital, data and technology will play a crucial role in realising the promise of these trends. We will see increased use of advanced technologies such as cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), data and analytics, blockchain, among others to drive innovation, agility, and growth to realise the value of the trends shaping the global pharma economy.  

What role can technology play in redefining the supply chain of pharma companies?  

In an increasingly digital world, patients expect the same convenience and personalisation from pharma companies that they experience from other industries. Pharma companies have an opportunity to become more data-led, impactful, human, and truly patient-centric. While companies understand the need for patient centricity, their product portfolios face increasingly complex changes that place greater demands on the supply chain. This requires companies to be focused on creating ‘patient-centric supply chains’ – this means delivering the right therapy, to the right patient, at the right time, in the right place and for the right price. Patient centric supply chains are shaped by internal factors like portfolio complexity, expanding value chains, and talent growth to support the new world order and external factors like evolving patient expectations, new sites and modalities of care, policy shifts and geopolitical challenges in the current global scenario. 

Achieving patient centric supply chains is not possible without a keen and purposeful focus on the technologies that will enable this. It is important for technology to deliver the vision of the company’s supply chain agenda. Today, a key challenge pharma companies face is in creating the right level of visibility across the supply chain to proactively drive towards a patient-centric model. 

Deploying business and functional requirements-led technologies will help improve forecasting, planning, real-time visibility across the supply chain function. This will help create a dynamic, intelligent supply chain network that can respond to unforeseen external events with both speed and agility, by seamlessly integrating planning and scheduling capabilities. Additionally, pharma companies can leverage data-driven insights and dynamic fulfilment to significantly improve their operational efficiency and build resiliency, driving revenue growth and delivering superior customer experiences.  

In the post-pandemic world, how can pharma companies redefine their engagement with doctors? 

The pandemic has definitely accelerated the adoption of digital in healthcare, especially for doctors in India. According to our survey, while 54 percent of doctors acknowledged that the pandemic has led to a significant increase in the volume of information sent through digital channels by pharma companies, more than half shared that pharma companies need to better understand and meet their evolving needs. This has not only transformed the way doctors interact with their patients, but also their preferences and requirements of how they interact with pharma companies.  

Pharma companies need to rethink the doctor engagement model including the content and most importantly, the quality of engagement. The traditional engagement models need an immediate overhaul to ensure they can efficiently and quickly deliver on the changes. In today’s digital age, it is imperative that pharma companies make the shift from mono or multichannel to omnichannel experience to be able to deliver seamless, connected experiences that are relevant to customer requirements. This not only improves recall but also helps build brand advocacy through differentiated, value-based experiences.  

To deliver on this changing landscape, pharma companies need to use the power of data and analytics to understand the doctor holistically – who they are, what they need to hear, when and how they like to engage and have meaningful conversations which are inherently valuable to them, focus on relevant content and new engagement models to deliver superior experience, make customer experience every function’s responsibility and priority and drive sustainable engagement through technology and data 

Through all of this, data is fundamentally the cornerstone of driving digital transformation in the pharma industry - helping companies improve their day-to-day operations, maximise value from digital investments, and accelerate innovation.  

How does Accenture help pharma companies reimagine their business? 

At Accenture, we provide end-to-end business services as well as broad range of insight-driven services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations in all strategic and functional areas—with a strong focus on supply chain effectiveness and resilience, sales and marketing, patient services, research and development and others. We help pharma companies unlock value from digital transformations and make a meaningful impact on patients’ lives by combining the latest technology with scientific breakthroughs to revolutionise how medical treatments are discovered, developed and delivered to patients. We combine our data and analytics capabilities and industry expertise to help pharma companies achieve their business objectives, deliver hyper-personalised services and improve health and economic outcomes.