Executive Summary: ISG Provider Lens™ Life Sciences Digital Services - Global 2022
22 Feb 2023
by Frances Grote, Rainer Suletzki
The individual quadrant reports are available at:
ISG Provider Lens™ Life Sciences Digital Services - PV and Regulatory Affairs - Global 2022
Technology is facilitating the new normal for Life Sciences
In the past year, as the world continued to recover from the challenges and restrictions implemented to manage the COVID-19 situation, leading life science companies and the providers that support them made significant advances in incorporating technology solutions into the DNA of their operations. This sector has historically been reluctant to embrace innovative approaches at scale, but the pandemic has catalyzed a permanent change. For starters, the pandemic made many formerly standard processes, such as in-person patient visits and just-in-time supply chain practices impossible, which created an unprecedented demand for innovative solutions. Leading solution providers not only intervened with existing technology solutions but also demonstrated their readiness to collaborate, innovate and invest with greater flexibility and customer-centric focus than ever before.
Although the concept of Decentralized Clinical Trials (DCTs) is one of the first to come to mind as a reflection of these changes, there are multiple areas where innovative approaches are being broadly implemented. Top providers are employing automation, end-to-end integration, platform-agnostic software, cloud transformation and advanced analytics across the entire spectrum of life science opportunities. Furthermore, the availability of more powerful mobile connectivity opens up immense opportunities to realize true patient centricity. Within the past year, the market has shifted from piloting technology solutions to a demand for skills, software and platforms that support implementation at scale. Provider offerings which are in demand combine subject matter and technical expertise with the services and platforms to solve specific customer problems. While many solutions are customizable rather than custom, best-of-breed solutions are identifiable by their flexibility, agility and ease of adoption by users across the life sciences spectrum.
Another key defining trend in 2022 was a new openness to partnering and collaboration. Leading providers in the life science sector gave multiple examples of their foundational reliance on improving innovation through partnerships. Many cited collaborations with academia, start-ups, medical institutions and other potential innovators. All referred to engaging deeply with their life science clients to identify and progress opportunities for process improvement and technology solutioning. In addition, the ability to successfully collaborate with potential competitors has become a new competitive advantage.
End-to-end integration of solutions was also a differentiator and driver of competitive advantage in 2022. Top providers promoted their vision to ensure that work delivered in the development of drugs and devices was designed from the outset to support marketing imperatives. They also emphasized that the technologies and software employed in that development process offered the ability to integrate with and/or support solutions at least through the marketing phase. Some best-of-breed solutions also provided functionalities that integrated with supply chain management. Top solutions relied on cloud infrastructure and provided user friendly analytics and customizable reporting capabilities underpinned by strict adherence to regulatory compliance guidelines and a sophisticated understanding of cybersecurity.
While all quadrants assessed for 2022 showed substantial progress toward new ways of approaching long-standing challenges, some of the biggest changes can be seen in Clinical Development. This quadrant was historically seen as the dominant phase of drug and device development. It now needs to be treated as an integrated element of the overall product lifecycle. Technologies are not only used to escalate timelines for enrollment and data availability from clinical trials but also to support patient centricity, health care professional (HCP) engagement, marketing priorities, safety and regulatory reporting and supply chain management.
Equally substantive changes to the breadth and depth of new perspectives are evident in the Patient Engagement quadrant. While integrated technologies at the patient level were initially a response to the challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic for both clinical trials and health management, they have now become a permanent element of life science patient interactions. By easing the burden on patients and facilitating remote HCP interactions, patient-level devices and technologies are helping to shorten clinical trial timelines and enhance safety and data management.
As with other life science quadrants, Manufacturing and Supply Chain has leveraged the opportunities resulting from the pandemic to embed improved ways of working into daily operations. A strategy of integration across the lifecycle, combined with a renewed emphasis on compliance, drives many of the innovations being implemented. Here again, there is a deep focus on using automation, real-time data access and integration of processes, inventories, machines and customer demand to streamline supply chain management. In addition, analytics capabilities have become more important for the optimization of global and complex supply chain structures.
Pharmacovigilance (PV), which has long been at the forefront of business process outsourcing, is again leading the way for many life science companies when it comes to implementing innovative solutions. NLP and machine learning are being widely used to enhance safety reporting processes, as well as improve data aggregation from unstructured sources. Additionally, Regulatory Affairs is rapidly catching up with the other life science quadrants in terms of leveraging automation and integrated solutions to support compliance, reporting and regulatory intelligence requirements.
MedTech, which has long been at the forefront of technology innovation, is also working on expanding the breadth and depth of technology enablement. In addition to continued focus on automation, cloud transformation, advanced analytics and increased efficiency, a key element of leading provider strategies is the focus on patient experience. Insights into how device connectivity and software enhancements can improve patient compliance and outcomes drove much of the innovation in this quadrant during 2022.
In summary, 2022 showed that the pace of change has been accelerated by COVID-19, and that there is permanence to the adoption of digital technologies, cloud, IoT, advanced analytics and automation across the entire life science value chain. Driven by what are likely irreversible shifts in preferred means of patient engagement, value derived from collaborations, reduced participant burden for both research and operations and the increased efficiencies needed for successful manufacturing and supply chain, life science organizations are integrating expected cost and efficiency savings into their strategic planning and budgeting processes. Leading providers in all quadrants analyzed are not just investing in their vision for the future but are closely collaborating with multiple stakeholders to ensure solutions are targeted toward the upcoming market needs. They have also developed a deep appreciation for the need to provide continuous support for ongoing innovation, broad integration across client ecosystems, end-to-end lifecycle management and patient experience. Their solutions are agile, flexible and adaptable to changing market conditions. They appreciate the need to combine technology innovation with domain and process expertise and to minimize the disruption caused by transformation. Last but certainly not least, Leaders have also responded with innovation in their commercial models, showing an increased willingness to fund innovation, enter into co-development agreements and engage in outcome-based pricing models.
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