The first decades of the 21st century have been marked by excitement at the prospect of transformation in the form of ever-improving data analysis. In both business and healthcare, decision-makers repeatedly discuss the benefits of improved data analysis and its impact on business intelligence and decision-making.
Today, those benefits are more than talk. By employing comprehensive data analysis solutions, pharmaceutical companies can enhance their competitive intelligence and make better research, communications, and business decisions.
The State of Pharma Competition
Competition in the pharmaceutical industry remains a topic of intense study and debate. A December 2023 report by the U.S. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) found that many treatments, including small molecule drugs and biological products, had only one manufacturer at the time the report was released.
Yet this state of affairs is in rapid flux. Several treatments and therapies have recently made headlines not only for their efficacy but because they rapidly faced competition from other drugmakers. The influx of generic or biosimilar versions of Humira, as well as the rise of semaglutide competitors, both demonstrate that competition remains robust in the pharmaceutical industry.
Nor are pharma companies’ efforts to explore new avenues and bring new treatments to market likely to end in the near future. The rush to develop a vaccine and treatments for COVID-19 opened up a number of promising study avenues.
Today, “advanced therapeutic modalities are no longer just niche programs at the bleeding edge of science. They are moving rapidly into the mainstream and will soon be a standard modality,” write L.E.K. Consulting’s Alex Vadas, Jeff Holder, and Adam Siebert in the Harvard Business Review. Having access to better data for stronger competitive insights will be essential for pharmaceutical companies.
Why Data Analysis Matters in Pharma
Collecting complete, accurate data and analyzing it effectively has always been a cornerstone of pharmaceutical research and development efforts. Yet the value of robust data analysis extends beyond the work performed during clinical trials or in the research laboratory.
Data analysis is essential throughout the pharma product life cycle, writes Andrew A. Anderson, Vice President of Innovation and Informatics Strategy at ACD/Labs. For example, pharma companies hone their competitive edge when they:
- Incorporate business intelligence into business process analyses — using data to examine how therapies are discovered, developed, and delivered to patients.
- Support and maintain consistent, high-quality data generation, storage, retrieval, security, and analysis across the pharma organization.
- Institute data governance systems and operations that maximize the benefit of data-generating activities by extracting evidence-based, nuanced insights from data.
- Ensure that knowledge flow among departments and teams within the organization strikes a balance between ease of access and essential security.
In today’s world, robust data analysis matters more than ever to business decisions throughout the pharma organization. “Manufacturers must think in new ways about all three pillars of commercialization–product development, getting those products reimbursed at a price that is profitable, and market adoption,” writes healthcare business consultant Rita Numerof.
Choosing Robust Data Analysis Tools to Make a Difference
Anju’s TA Scan provides a digital “single source of truth” that incorporates deep, wide-ranging publicly available data sets for more comprehensive data analysis and better business intelligence insights.
TA Scan updates weekly, providing access to the best available information on clinical trials, key opinion leader, publications and presentations, and other relevant data. The solution also incorporates patented linking and analysis algorithms to make sense of this information — and to present it in an intuitive, usable, and adaptable environment.
TA Scan supports pharmaceutical business intelligence by:
- Using hundreds of data sources for a more comprehensive look at current information. TA Scan accesses hundreds of publicly-available data sources, including 450,000 clinical trials occurring in nearly 200 countries worldwide. TA Scan then brings the contents of these data sources into a single digital platform, focusing your team’s attention on what matters in the moment.
- Connecting you to better data analysis and experience-based insights. Whether it’s analyzing data with TA Scan’s patented linking and analysis algorithms or connecting users to the work of clinical trial sites, principal investigators, and key opinion leaders, TA Scan ensures that pharmaceutical business teams have what they need to make evidence- and data-based business decisions.
- Sharing and reporting information easily. Graphical interfaces, adaptable data tools, and export features make it easy to create graphical outputs and reports to share with other decision-makers within a pharmaceutical company department or throughout the organization.
For decades, the benefits of improved data analysis for both healthcare and business have been the subject of excited discussion. Tools like Anju’s TA Scan turn those aspirations into realities — allowing pharmaceutical teams to make business decisions based on competitive intelligence and deeper insights.
Images used under license by Shutterstock.com.
Authored by Elke Ydens, Associate Director of Business Solutions, Data Division
Elke Ydens, Associate Director of Business Solutions at Anju’s Data Division, brings over a decade of life sciences experience and a PhD in Biochemistry and Biotechnology from the University of Antwerp. As a Subject Matter Expert in Data Science, she adeptly addresses customer needs, leveraging her background in neuro-immunology and biochemistry. Elke remains dedicated to professional growth, contributing to industry publications, and staying updated on industry trends, while also finding success in extracurricular pursuits, formerly competing in world and European bridge championships, and more recently active in beekeeping and coaching. Connect with Elke on LinkedIn to explore her achievements further.