What Will Drive Pharma in 2024?
In 2023, precision targeting for personalised medicines, improving the information flow between reps and healthcare professionals, and advancements in clinical trials have driven the adoption of new technologies, but we are only at the beginning. With these advancements come more valuable data, and the potential to make better-informed decisions. Using better connected data and processes will help reduce friction to speed up the delivery of treatments to the right patients, at the right time, as well as reducing cost.
As we progress through 2024, we are set to see all these areas continue to mature and evolve. Pharma and healthcare providers who can successfully embrace data, analytics, and digital platforms will be the best positioned to succeed in 2024 and beyond.
Development Teams will Rethink Big Data to Support Personalised Medicine
The life sciences industry has been waiting a long time for big data1 to transform the commercial viability of personalised medicine. With automation now coming of age, R&D teams can finally seize the opportunity – as long as their data is also clean, standardised, interoperable, and secure.
In 2024, companies will focus on making big data (which could range from raw trial and site-specific data to IT data points, such as cycle times) more usable, by resolving common pain points around cleaning, ownership, and standards. As a result, the volume and frequency of access to study data will increase exponentially. This will require a transparent data model with stringent user access controls to address data privacy and cyber-security concerns.
Leading companies will use automation to make hundreds of marginal and incremental efficiency gains across the development lifecycle, whether deep querying protocols, detecting patterns during medical imaging analysis, or verifying the origin of chemical components. A growing industry momentum will lead to more direct data APIs between sponsors, health institutes, and regulatory authorities2 so that “big (clean) data” becomes a reality, creating the right conditions for commercially viable, personalised medicines to reach patients in need.
As Digital Therapeutics Evolve, Top Device Manufacturers Will Stake Their Claim in The Space
When Pear Therapeutics became the first company to receive payer funding for a mobile app to treat substance use disorder in 2021, it seemed like the industry was gearing up for digital therapeutics to go mainstream.3
However, a lot has changed in two years. The digital health market has suffered some losses that have cast a long shadow on the budding industry, with some companies filing for bankruptcy and other leaving the payer market to go direct-to-consumer.
Despite these setbacks, digital therapeutics will continue to gain traction in 2024 – especially for larger companies that have the resources to learn lessons from these early trailblazers in the space.
In the coming years, we expect to see top companies testing out varied commercial strategies for digital therapeutics, including going direct-to-consumer or developing companion apps to previously established therapies. Heavy “hitters” like Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Roche have already joined the Digital Therapeutics Alliance,4 and more will likely join the FDA’s5 newly formed Digital Health Advisory Committee.
