Report Store | Pharma intelligence
  • My Account
    • 0Shopping Cart
  • $0.00
  • Disease analysis
    • Anemias
    • Bacterial infections
    • Bleeding disorders
    • Brain Cancer
    • Breast and gynecological cancer
    • Cardiovascular and Metabolic
    • Central Nervous System
    • Cerebrovascular diseases
    • Dermatology
    • Diabetes and diabetic complications
    • Gastroenterology
    • Gastrointestinal cancer
    • Head and Neck Cancer
    • Hypertension
    • Immunology and Inflammation
    • Infectious Diseases
    • Ischemic heart disease
    • Leukemia
    • Lung Cancer
    • Lymphoma
    • Oncology overview
    • Market Spotlight
    • Mens Health
    • Neurology
    • Oncology
    • Ophthalmology
    • Other Hematological Cancers
    • Other metabolic diseases
    • Other Solid Cancers
    • Pain
    • Psychiatry
    • Respiratory
    • Rheumatology
    • Skin cancer
    • Thrombosis
    • Urological cancer
    • Vaccines
    • Viral infections
    • Women’s Health
  • Strategy analysis
    • Bleeding disorders
    • Breast and gynecological cancer
    • Cardiovascular and Metabolic
    • Central Nervous System
    • Commercial Strategy
    • Dealmaking and R&D
    • Head and Neck Cancer
    • Hot Topics
    • Infectious Diseases
    • KOL Insight
    • Leukemia
    • Lung Cancer
    • Manufacturing
    • Market Access
    • Neurology
    • Oncology
    • Outsourcing
    • Pricing & Reimbursement
    • R&D
    • Regulatory & Therapeutic Area
    • Trends
    • Urological cancer
  • Company analysis
    • Big Pharma
    • Emerging Pharma
    • Hot Topics
    • Japan Pharma
    • M&A Analysis
    • Mid Pharma
  • Drug analysis
    • A
    • B-C
    • D-F
    • G-L
    • M-O
    • P-R
    • S-T
    • U-Z
  • MedTech analysis
    • Allergy
    • Autoimmune / Immunology
    • Cardiovascular
    • Dermatology
    • Endocrine
    • ENT / Dental
    • Gastroenterology
    • Hearing
    • Hematology
    • Infectious Diseases
    • Metabolic
    • Neurology
    • Obstetrics / Gynecology
    • Oncology
    • Ophthalmology
    • Orthopedics
    • Osteoporosis
    • Psychiatry
    • Renal
    • Respiratory
    • Rheumatology
    • Urology
  • Opinion & analysis
    • Business Development
    • Business Management
    • Clinical Trials
    • Digital Health
    • Cybersecurity
    • Compliance & Risk
    • Digital patient management
    • Digital policy & regulation
    • Finance & Pricing
    • Healthcare Innovation
    • ICT and Health
    • Leadership
    • Legislation Regulation & Policy
    • Market Access
    • Market Intelligence
    • Medical
    • Pharmaceutical Device
    • Pharmaceutical Research
    • Strategy & Innovation
    • Tech companies & Data
    • Tech & Pharma
  • Blogs
  • Search
  • Menu
You are here: Home > Blogs > Company > 2019: The Year of the Digital Pharma?

2019: The Year of the Digital Pharma?

January 8, 2019 | Company

Melanie senior

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) used to be the most disruptive force affecting pharma. Mega-deals continue: Takeda’s $59 billion deal for Shire in 2018, a record-breaker, has just been surpassed in early 2019 by Bristol Myers Squibb’s surprise $74 billion cash and stock deal for Celgene.

But digital technologies are changing pharma more profoundly than even the largest mega-deal. And while several Big Pharma CEOs have said they’re now avoiding large M&A, the digital shift will doubtless continue in 2019, as technology’s potential to improve drug industry productivity becomes clearer – and as pharma’s need grows.

 

New tools and capabilities, including back-office data capture and analysis, artificial-intelligence-based algorithms to accelerate drug discovery and development, virtual clinical trial platforms, wearables and smartphone-based therapeutics are impacting every business function. “Digital” isn’t a single department or skillset. “Going digital” – establishing a robust digital infrastructure and user-friendly tools that can help improve efficiency and output – requires people from across the entire organisation to engage with new kinds of systems and ways of working. It requires a change in culture.

 

Changing culture is the hardest part. The workings of AI-based algorithms and data analytics tools may be complicated. Using them effectively does not usually require a deep understanding of those workings, though: we all use smartphones and GPS in our cars. We need to want to use them. We need to be convinced that they can help us get to where we want to be – rather than see them as a threat.

 

Hence leadership in digital transformation must come from the top. Yet turning digital into a core capability also requires support and expertise at all levels. It also involves partnering with new kinds of organisations – from Google or Amazon to tiny digital start-ups and technology-makers – with entirely different cultures and far more rapid innovation cycles than in the highly-regulated pharmaceutical industry.

 

After a slow start, many pharma firms are well underway in their digital transformation. These transformations vary widely in their speed and focus. Few initiatives are made public – although those that are give a sense of the scope of change. Novartis claims it is already seeing results from huge, CEO-led digital initiatives such as its ‘mission control’ centre for clinical trials, and from its Digital Cortex data analysis and simulation program in discovery. Otsuka Pharmaceuticals in late 2017 achieved FDA approval of its schizophrenia pill, Abilify (aripiprazole) combined with a tiny ingestible sensor, made by Proteus Digital Health. The combination – a data-collecting pill — is designed to track adherence among patients with CNS disorders. Roche says it is using data from high quality electronic health records (EHR) as a surrogate for standard-of-care control arms in cancer trials.

 

That data came from Roche’s $1.9 billion purchase of oncology-focused Flatiron in February 2018.  This new kind of pharma M&A  – accessing data, not just pipeline or products –will likely increase in 2019 and beyond, as the era of Digital Pharma begins.

Related Content

Digital Pharma: Are We Nearly There?

FacebookTweetPin

Related posts:

Immuno-Oncology: Still the hottest game in town
Company

Immuno-Oncology: Still the hottest game in town

  • January, 17 2019
  • 2136

Oncology remains a red-hot favourite among investors and dealmakers. It was central to 2019’s first two big deals, Bristol-Myers’ Squibb’s $74 billion Celgene merger and Lilly’s purchase of Loxo Oncology. Oncology dominated 2018’s outsized biotech IPO ros

Is January’s M&A a flash in the pan, or does it signal sustained dealmaking heat
Company

Is January’s M&A a flash in the pan, or does it signal sustained dealmaking heat

  • January, 10 2019
  • 1258

2019 started with a bang for pharma M&A: by January 7, $82 billion worth of shopping had been announced. Bristol Myers Squibb’s $74 billion cash and stock offer for Celgene on New Year’s day is the fourth-largest deal ever. It was followed days later

GSK buys Tesaro to re-enter oncology race
Company

GSK buys Tesaro to re-enter oncology race

  • December, 13 2018
  • 1790

GlaxoSmithKline’s latest deal to buy US cancer company Tesaro looks a bit like a strategic U-turn. In 2014, Sir Andrew Witty, then CEO, did a swap-deal with Novartis: it sold off the company’s established oncology business because it was un-competitive, a

Related Content
Read more
  • Home
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Refund policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Discounts
  • Market Spotlight – Reports
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • Sitemap
Datamonitor Healthcare is part of Pharma intelligence Datamonitor Healthcare is a trading division of Datamonitor Limited, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 2306113 whose registered office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG. VAT GB365462636. Datamonitor Limited is part of Informa PLC.
‘Tis the Season to be Vaccinated Is January’s M&A a flash in the pan, or does it signal sustained dealmaking...

Sign up to the Pharma Intelligence Report Store Newsletter to get the latest blogs, news, reports and discounts!

Pharma Intelligence is part of the Business Intelligence Division of Informa PLC
  • Informa PLC
  • ABOUT US
  • INVESTOR RELATIONS
  • TALENT
This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726
informa
Call Back
Scroll to top