Advanced analytics in commercial pharmaceutical industry

In 2013, estimates suggested that there were about 153 exabytes of healthcare data generated that year. (For reference one exabyte is one quintillion bytes!) However, projections for 2020 indicate that there could be as much as 2,314 exabytes of new data generated. Given the vast volume of data, advanced analytics is needed to process it and generate value.

Advanced analytics is breathing life into pharma company strategies. The tools can integrate and process millions of records on structured and unstructured data, including physician notes, clinical trial data, medical transcripts, claims, patient records, and even social media posts. The deep and often unique insights generated allow pharma companies to invest wisely into new drugs and develop more precise and differentiated sales force strategies in distribution, market opportunities per therapy area and innovative value generation.

To delve deeper into the true plus points of entwining advanced analytics into pharma companies operations, let us explore the many benefits on offer.

Expedite drug discovery and development

Advanced analytics can accelerate the drug discovery process. With patents for red carpet drugs nearing expiration and the cost of bringing a new drug to the market pushing $5 billion, accelerating drug discovery and development can be beneficial down the line. The ability to intelligently search vast datasets of patents, scientific publications, and clinical trial data should accelerate the discovery of new drugs by enabling researchers to examine previous test results.

Applying predictive analytics to the search parameters should help them hone in on relevant information and also get insight into avenues that can yield the best results.

Increase in revenue generation

According to a Chief Data Officer, advanced analytics can deliver at least 10 per cent net impact from a “top-and-bottom-line perspective”. The pharma company’s pricing strategy and messaging can all be refined based on past transactions, behaviour, future trends and patent needs of different players in the buyer ecosystem. Most pharma companies are already using predictive and prescriptive modelling (advanced analytics) to forecast either revenue or customer lifetime value.

This, in turn, will enhance the relevance and impact of pharma commercial strategies and improve revenue generation.

Customer segmentation and targeting

Through the power of advanced analytics and the plethora of software available, pharma companies can leverage the benefits of customer segmentation and targeting algorithms to identify physicians serving patients that meet the company’s relevant patient profile. Analytics can also identify physicians’ preference for specific channels and communication frequency. With significantly reduced physician access, these inputs can help design interactions that are tailored, on-point and convenient – improving physician satisfaction and loyalty toward the brand (increasing demand and reach).

Effective patient data analysis

Advanced analytics can deliver unique insights into a specific drug’s effectiveness. This insight allows them to identify drugs that do not trigger chronic illness medication, allowing pharma companies to market the drug to the relevant specialists.

Furthermore, patients will respond differently to treatment for different reasons. Combing through the data with advanced analytics allows drug companies to spot trends and patterns that allow them to come up with more targeted medication for patients that share common features. This allows pharma companies to curate and effectively market the relevant drugs in the right state and to the right demographic.

Optimise and improve the efficacy of clinical trials

Clinical trials are costly and time-consuming to run, pharmaceutical companies want to ensure they have the right mix of patients for a given trial. Advanced analytics can assist in identifying the appropriate patients to participate in a trial through remote patient monitoring, reviewing previous clinical trial events and analysing demographic/historical data to identify potential side effects before they become a reality.

Global management consultancy firm, McKinsey, says that patients’ big data could also help pharmaceutical companies take into account more factors, such as genetic information to help companies identify niche patient populations, streamline procedures and reduce the cost of trialing new medication.

How can advanced analytics platforms help?

Back in the days of yore, there was no plausible alternate reality where the large amount of data churned out by the healthcare industry could be collected and analysed in real-time. With the advent of advanced analytics in healthcare, we see technology pushing the envelope on what we can truly achieve in this space.

Advanced analytics platforms help pharma companies leverage insights from machine learning, AI, advanced forecasting and optimisation to gain a competitive edge and secure success, bringing tremendous benefits to the pharma industry and all those who collaborate with it.

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