Maximizing ROI in pharma: Extracting value from analysis and reporting

By Unjulie Bhanot, Product Marketing Manager, Process Development & Manufacturing, IDBS

In an ever-evolving digital landscape, the importance of extracting value from analysis and reporting cannot be overstated. During our recent IDBS webinar, “Maximizing ROI: Extracting value from analysis and reporting,” Mike Barnes, Lead Solutions Consultant, shared his wealth of knowledge on this subject. Building on our previous sessions in the Digital Maturity webinar series, Mike provided a comprehensive exploration of strategies for maximizing ROI in pharma through advanced analytics, streamlined operations and an interconnected data management platform.

Embracing the digital transformation journey

Digital maturity is not a destination but a journey. As highlighted by Mike, the pharmaceutical industry, historically lagging in digital maturity, has shown significant improvements. McKinsey’s assessments indicate that leaders in digital and analytical fields estimate a 5 to 15% bottom-line improvement in specific operational nodes over the past five years, equating to an estimated $6 to $9 billion. However, a staggering $130 to $190 billion remains untapped, signaling the immense potential for further digitalization and analytical solutions. This potential underscores the importance of maximizing ROI from digital transformation endeavors in pharma.

Overcoming barriers to digital maturity

Despite the promising potential, companies face significant hurdles. The primary challenges include a lack of integrated data sources and the difficulty in finding skilled talent. Mike delved into these issues, emphasizing the chaos resulting from fragmented data across drug development stages. This chaos arises from three primary factors: limited or point solution digitization and digitalization, process scope and data functionality, each contributing to the creation of silos. Breaking down these siloes is crucial to the success of digital transformation initiatives.

The importance of integrated data sources

To illustrate the struggle with integrated data sources, Mike took us through the entire drug development process, from discovery to manufacturing. Formed as a result of a varying degree of digitalization, a plethora of different tools and a difference in core needs for each functional area, the disparate functional landscapes within these stages create small islands of efficiency in a sea of disjointed data. This misalignment results in delays, wasted resources and data integrity risks. The solution lies in a single, interconnected platform that bridges these gaps, removes the need for individual or bespoke point solutions, and scales to optimize processes across the entire pharmaceutical development spectrum.

Advanced analytics for enhanced insights

Mike showcased the benefits of an integrated software or informatics platform, natively creating trustworthy AI/ML-ready data with embedded advanced analytics capabilities. Utilizing a platform that connects specialized equipment and file repository data with process-centric workflows and operational data creates a holistic view that can support both GxP and non-GxP work.

With inventory management and insight tools embedded within the same platform, not only is data integrity maintained, but the data being leveraged in advanced analytics tools is contextualized and trustworthy. This empowers scientists to delve into their data without needing to spend time cleaning and pivoting it, nor requiring extensive statistical or programming knowledge to get the necessary data visualizations.

Practical applications: From bioreactor comparisons to DoE

Mike presented practical examples to illustrate the platform’s capabilities. He started with a bioreactor comparison report, enabling users to examine collected bioreactor run data, identify deviations and export findings for further analysis. This tool simplifies the analysis of data from multiple bioreactor runs, experiments and scales, providing valuable insights into process variability.

The multivariate analysis tool further enhances understanding by identifying process parameters contributing to variability. By transforming parameters into principal components and ranking them by their impact, scientists can quickly pinpoint areas of concern. This information is invaluable for optimizing processes and minimizing variability.

The design of experiments (DoE) tool takes optimization a step further. By selecting experiments and setting parameters, users can generate models that highlight critical process parameters. This approach streamlines the setup and execution of experiments, ultimately leading to more efficient and effective processes, contributing to maximizing ROI in pharma, and therefore demonstrating clearly how the right digital tools prove invaluable for pharma organizations.

Streamlining operations: A day in the life

To provide a comprehensive view of the platform’s capabilities, Mike walked us through the execution and analysis of a typical bioreactor run. From initiating a production run to monitoring data and submitting samples for analytical testing, the platform simplifies and streamlines every step while maintaining connectivity and links between each process step and materials and samples created. Also, integrating various instruments and data sources ensures data integrity and provides a seamless workflow.

Users can easily access requests, check schedules and perform report analyses using integrated tools. The platform’s ability to communicate and coordinate with different groups enhances efficiency and reduces the risk of errors. This interconnected approach ensures that all data is readily available, supporting informed decision-making and accelerating business operations.

Ensuring data integrity and security

Maintaining data integrity and security is paramount in the pharmaceutical industry. The platform’s event-driven workflows capture all actions and changes, creating an audit trail. This feature is crucial for compliance and ensures data integrity is preserved throughout the process.

Additionally, the platform’s security measures and permissions protect sensitive data while enabling data scientists to access and analyze the information needed. This balance between security and accessibility is essential for fostering innovation and maximizing ROI in pharma.

Empowering scientists and driving innovation

In conclusion, the ability to harmonize information from various sources into a single digital backbone is crucial for extracting value from analysis and reporting. A configurable platform with vendor-neutral connectivity enables digital connection beyond digital collection. By streamlining data input and providing versatile advanced analytics tools, scientists of any background can make data-driven decisions, accelerating business operations while maintaining data integrity.

As we wrap up the blog posts on our Digital Maturity series, we extend our gratitude to all readers. With over 30 years of experience partnering with BioPharma companies, IDBS is committed to sharing our knowledge and expertise. We look forward to supporting your digital transformation journey, no matter your level of digital maturity.

Please note: This blog post has been written as a summary of the webinar “Maximizing ROI: Extracting value from analysis and reporting,” presented by Mike Barnes, Lead Solutions Consultant.

Watch the webinar to learn more.

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About the author

By Unjulie Bhanot, Product Marketing Manager, Process Development & Manufacturing, IDBS

Unjulie Bhanot is the Product Marketing Manager for Process Development and Manufacturing at IDBS. With over 10 years of experience in the Biopharma informatics space, she has led the strategy and development of IDBS’ Bioprocess solutions and was instrumental in the launch of IDBS Polar to market.

 

References:

1. McKinsey & Company. Top Ten Observations (2022).Life Sciences Digital and Analytics. McKinsey & Company. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/life-sciences/our-insights/top-ten-observations-from-2022-in-life-sciences-digital-and-analytics
2. IDBS (2024). Maximizing ROI: Extracting value from analysis and reporting