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Technology enablers throughout the Life Sciences Value Chain

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vikas sudan
Technology enablers throughout the Life Sciences Value Chain

What is the Life Sciences Value Chain?

The Life Sciences industry comprises all the entities that are involved in the manufacturing, distribution, and research and innovation, for drugs and medical therapies. These will include companies like pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotech companies, material technology, nanotechnology, etc.

The life sciences industry has been one of the foremost in adopting technology across its value chain. Even as back as 1997 FDA had published rules for electronic records and signatures. And in every stage of drug development from development to marketing, technology today is an inherent part of the process. The Life sciences industry has also been keen on adopting innovative ways of managing, processing, and utilizing data as the technology advanced.

Technology as an enabler at each stage 

Research and Discovery

Drug discovery is a cumbersome and time-consuming process. It is said that out of the 10,000 potential molecules identified during the research and discovery phase, only 1 goes on to become a marketed product. Hence, it is imperative for pharma companies to optimize operations at every stage of the value chain and utilize as much technology as possible for that. One such way is to maintain a large data bank of molecules. Many of the analysis at the molecular level today is done as much by programs as in actual labs. A huge data of molecules and their properties, helps scientists run virtual tests on the molecules and filter out the correct set of tests they actually need to perform in labs. Life sciences technology companies have played an important role in enabling swift processing of data which in turn saved a lot of material and resources that would have been wasted in unnecessary tests.  

Clinical Development 

Clinical trials form the backbone of any pharma company’s activities. One of the aspects that Life Sciences consulting firms focus on is to seamlessly help data flow through the different stages of the Life Sciences value chain. For example, in the different phases of clinical trials, companies need to meticulously plan, execute and record each and every trial result. This results in a huge amount of data that needs to be maintained and safeguarded for later use. Life sciences technology companies have been at the forefront of providing solutions for this requirement to pharma companies which in turn are able to reduce the processing costs and successfully complete their trials. 

Regulatory Approvals 

One of the most testing times for a Life Sciences company is when it has to get regulatory approvals for its therapy. Due to the heavy investment of time and resources that goes in to developing a potential drug molecule, companies try to be extra careful and thorough about the regulatory submissions. Long back when the FDA was still based on paperwork, it wasn’t uncommon for Pharma executives to land up with truckloads of files and records to submit at the FDA. Such times are thankfully history and today since all Life Sciences services are digitized, regulatory submissions like those for 21 CFR part 11 are now easier and transparent. The digitization process also means that regulatory authorities like FDA are also able to process drug approval requests faster. 

Manufacturing and Distribution

Like in any industry, from raw material suppliers to distribution points is a long supply chain in Life sciences also. Due to the critical nature of the product, the monitoring and quality control at every stage is meticulous and mandatorily recorded. Life sciences consulting firms help pharma companies manage the ERP, manufacturing systems, supply chain systems, and distribution chain and ensure that those mandatory regulations like GMP are automatically followed. 

Marketing and Post-market Surveillance 

Salesforce automation, CRM software, pharmacovigilance software, are just some of the Life Sciences services that technology companies provide to Pharma companies to help them manage their value chain post a product is launched in the market. Once a drug is launched, the company would like to sell it in as many markets as possible and ensure it recovers all its costs plus profits. For this, it needs to be on top of the sales and marketing efforts. 

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