The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a major transformation due to technological advancements and the integration of artificial intelligence. Research indicates that within two years, 85% of pharmaceutical companies will adopt a data-driven approach, using business and competitive intelligence to optimize strategies, operations, and decision-making. Companies that do not embrace these technologies will be at a competitive disadvantage.
The use of (BI) Business Intelligence and (CI) Competitive Intelligence in Pharma has become essential for improving decision-making and differentiating from competitors, making it a standard practice in the industry. However, understanding and implementing these technologies poses its own challenges.
What is Competitive Intelligence in Pharma?
Pharmaceutical CI consists of the collection, analysis and interpretation of relevant information about the pharmaceutical industry and the specific market segment in which it operates. It involves gathering data from a variety of sources, such as competitor analysis, market studies, regulatory updates, patent information, clinical trials, and customer feedback.
The insights gained from competitive intelligence are used to inform decision making and support strategic planning within the pharmaceutical sector, primarily through automation, data analysis, generation of actionable information, and customization of information or value reports.
This new paradigm is driven by the incorporation of innovative data science strategies, guidedby an approach focused on data mining, data analytics, and product discovery.
This new model has driven digitalization and massive technological adoption within the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector, promoting the implementation of new methodologies and ways of operating. Indeed, the advent of the pandemic has prompted pharmaceutical companies to integrate cutting-edge technologies and streamline their operations, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in research, development, and distribution.
This competitive intelligence trend in the pharmaceutical industry is part of a larger trend of using pharmacovigilance (which is responsible for detecting, evaluating, understanding, and preventing adverse effects derived from the use of medicines), extracting large volumes of public data or web scraping applied to the pharmaceutical industry, and using business intelligence in general (applied to any type of industry).
The latest industry research clearly indicates that by 2024-2025, 85% of pharmaceutical companies will be data-driven. Furthermore, they view artificial intelligence as a significant asset. A recent study by Precedence Research indicates that the global AI market size in the pharmaceutical industry was valued at $908 million in 2022 and is projected to exceed $11,813 million by 2032, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29% from 2023 to 2032. This growth is driven by significant investments in AI technologies to improve drug research and development (R&D), as well as clinical production and testing. Indeed, the pharmaceutical industry’s outlook for 2024-2025 underscores the pivotal role of data integration, real-time analytics, medical device management, customer behavior analysis, dynamic pricing optimization, and self-service BI.
A Booming Industry for Drug Discovery:
It is worth noting that over the past decade, companies and start-ups around the world have signed more than 100 agreements to use AI in the discovery of new drugs, a clear indication of the growing importance of this sector. In 2020, DeepMind, Google’s AI research subsidiary, presented AlphaFold, an algorithm capable of predicting the three-dimensional structures and interactions of proteins, RNA, and DNA.
This innovation was instrumental in determining the protein structures of SARS-CoV-2, accelerating the development of vaccines against covid-19. In 2023, Roche announced a long-term research collaboration with the American chip manufacturer Nvidia. This agreement represents the eighth AI-related partnership that Roche has formed since 2019. Meanwhile, Swiss drugmaker Novartis offered Isomorphic Labs, a subsidiary of Google DeepMind, an upfront payment of $37.5 million, with the possibility of receiving an additional $1.2 billion if it achieves certain milestones in the development of three new drug candidates.
While some pharmaceutical companies were initially reluctant to rely on AI and ML for product and business development, recent advances in deep learning, generative AI tools, increasing computing power, and ever-deepening knowledge of genetics, molecular biology, bioinformatics, and medical image processing have transformed the landscape.
Benefits of Competitive and Business Intelligence in the Pharmaceutical Sector
There are approximately ten key advantages to implementing CI and BI in the pharmaceutical industry.
- Identify emerging market opportunities: Gain insight into emerging market trends, competitor activities, and market developments, allowing you to enter new markets at the optimal time and gain a competitive advantage.
- Gain insight into the competitive landscape: Monitor competitor product portfolios, pricing strategies, marketing campaigns, and market shares to identify areas of differentiation and inform strategic decision-making.
- Monitor regulatory changes: It is essential to stay up to date with regulatory changes, competitor interactions with regulatory bodies, and potential impact to ensure proactive compliance and mitigate risks.
- Evaluate the intellectual property landscape: Monitor competitor patent applications, analyze patent expiration dates, and identify potential infringement risks or licensing opportunities to inform strategic decision-making.
- Monitor key opinion leaders (KOLs): Monitor the activities of Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) by analyzing their social media posts, conference appearances, and collaborations to identify the most influential KOLs in the industry.
- Monitor clinical trials conducted by laboratories and pharmaceutical companies: Monitor competitor trials, analyze trial protocols, patient recruitment strategies, and trial results to identify gaps, assess competitive advantages, and make informed decisions.
- Anticipate competitive threats: Monitor competitor activities, including product launches, pricing strategies, mergers and acquisitions, and market expansion plans, to enable timely strategic adjustments and risk mitigation.
- Identify potential partnerships and licensing opportunities: Monitor competitor collaborations, analyze their licensing agreements, and track emerging technologies or assets to proactively identify potential partners, negotiate informed agreements, and form strategic alliances.
- Gain an understanding of the pricing and reimbursement landscape: Follow competitor pricing strategies, analyze reimbursement policies, track payer negotiations, and assess market entry barriers to ensure your pricing and reimbursement strategies remain optimized.
- Evaluate customer perceptions and preferences: Monitor social media platforms and feedback forums, product reviews, and customer feedback to identify emerging trends, understand customer needs, and adapt your marketing strategies and product offerings to align with customer expectations.
How to implement competitive intelligence in pharmaceutical companies
Integrating competitive intelligence into your organization’s strategy requires fostering a culture of competitive intelligence at all levels of your organization and identifying key information needs (in technical, operational, and business areas) where competitive intelligence can bring the greatest value to your organization.
At the same time, it is about establishing structured processes and tools for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of competitive intelligence information. Furthermore, CI should be integrated into the decision-making process. This entails providing data and market insights to support strategic and tactical decisions, as well as continuously monitoring and supervising the results obtained to make necessary adjustments.
To ensure a successful implementation of competitive intelligence in the pharmaceutical industry, it is essential to follow a series of critical steps.
- Monitoring clinical sources: Monitoring clinical trials, drug development, and emerging trends to inform R&D strategies and portfolio planning.
- Monitoring competitor activity: Monitoring competitor strategies, business developments, and public activities such as leadership changes, geographic expansions, partnerships, and mergers and acquisitions.
- Analyzing business and monetization strategies: Gain insights into competitor sales, pricing, and reimbursement strategies to identify formulary placement, growth areas, and reimbursement opportunities.
- Leveraging social media and digital news: Monitor and analyze competitor social media and digital news strategies, patient journey insights, website traffic analysis, and changes in brand messaging to understand customer perceptions and marketing tactics.
- Leveraging AI to enhance the speed of insight: By leveraging advanced technologies such as AI and ML, data collection, analysis, and insight generation from multiple sources can be automated, enabling real-time insights and accelerating decision-making processes.
How can CI assist my business in gaining a competitive advantage in Pharma?
At Scraping Pros, we believe that understanding your market, your competitors, and your customers is no longer an option; it is a necessity for success in today’s business environment. We are experts in competitive intelligence and web scraping for a wide range of industries, including the pharmaceutical sector.
Scraping Pros provides a comprehensive suite of solutions designed to offer clients a competitive advantage. Our competitive intelligence service is designed to meet the unique requirements of startups looking to establish themselves and established companies looking to maintain their leadership. It is not merely data; it is a strategic plan for success.
What is the best way for your company to successfully implement BI and CI?
1) Identifying growth opportunities: Identify new market opportunities, emerging trends, and unmet customer needs.
2) Obtaining insights into competitors: Gain insight into your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and tactics.
3) Mitigating risks: Identify potential competitive threats, regulatory changes, and market disruptions.
4) Optimizing operations: Enhance decision-making, strategic planning, and tactical execution.
5) Driving innovation: Identify emerging technologies, partnership opportunities, and areas for product differentiation.
We are the strategic partner you need to succeed in the pharmaceutical business intelligence sector. Please do not hesitate to contact us.
