Pharma’s digital inflection point

Pic by Charl Folscher on Unsplash

Billed as the world’s most influential technology event, this year’s CES show saw its first ever keynote from a healthcare company when Abbott CEO Robert Ford took to the stage in Las Vegas in January.

For Ford, the focus was on his company’s new range of consumer ‘biowearable’ health devices, but his appearance was also another reminder of the increasing importance of ‘digital’ in all its forms across the life sciences sector.

Alongside buzzworthy metaverse, NFT and cryptocurrency offerings, this year’s CES also saw updates in remote patient monitoring tech, mobile games for better mental health and a slew of wellness devices.

No cooling off for pharma digital transformation in 2021

Pic: Kristopher Roller on Unsplash

COVID-19 has already proved to be a digital accelerant for the pharmaceutical industry, sparking new ideas into life and lighting a fire underneath existing plans that had, in retrospect, yet to burn brightly.

After a year in which the need for digital transformation in pharma reached white heat levels, the sector mustn’t cool off in 2021 and revert to business-as-usual. A return to normal is the longed for goal for many of us, but pharma companies must decide what their future normal should look like.

“The healthcare industry is at an inflection point,” agrees Novartis’ Elizabeth Theophille.

Episode 23: Alnylam, gene-silencing and biotech in 2020

For episode 23 of the pharmaphorum podcast I spoke with Brendan Martin who’s acting head of Europe, as well as general manager for the UK and Ireland, at Alnylam about his company’s work in gene-silencing (or RNAi).

RNA interference research spent years in the doldrums and we looked at where it now stands, as well as discussing just what it means to be a biotech in 2020 and Brendan’s own approach to biotech leadership.

Episode 22: Novartis on how COVID-19 is changing pharma company culture

COVID-19 has caused some pretty major changes to our everyday lives, but what impact has the pandemic had on the pharmaceutical workplace?

It’s a topic the podcast touched on in episode 20 with Galen’s Dennise Broderick, and the latest instalment looks at it from the point of view of how COVID-19 is changing pharma company culture.

Joining me to provide expert insight on this for episode 22 of the pharmaphorum podcast was Novartis’ Steven Baert. As the company’s chief people and organisation officer he’s responsible for the physical and mental wellbeing of 130,000 employees around the world.

Digital Intelligence in PME, January 2012

January’s PME (Pharmaceutical Market Europe) is out now and with it the second print outing for my Digital Intelligence blog.

Leading with a European slant on the NHS telehealth pilot, it takes in Novartis’ CEO on using technology to improve healthcare access and a Manhattan Research study on Europeans and online health information.

There’s room too for a new health technology partnership from GE Healthcare (whose CEO and president I also happened to interview for this issue of PME), an exclusive on the first official Google+ pages from pharma and much more.

• Read January’s PME in full online, and view the blog’s print debut in December’s PME