Pharma Digital and Tech Trends 2021
By: David Reilly
Tags: Pharmaceuticals Industry, Trends, Digital Transformation, Pharmaceutical

In 2020 we witnessed a critical shift in digital and emerging technology’s importance within the Pharma Industry accelerated as a result of COVID 19. In this article, the author seeks to understand how HCPs and patient needs have changed as a result of the pandemic, and which of these trends will dominate the Pharma industry in 2021

Virtual engagement is here to stay

The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the daily operations of healthcare providers (HCPs) overnight to virtual interactions with both patients and pharma companies concurrently with lasting impact. Evidence suggests there is no going back and that both HCPs and patients are extracting great value in virtual engagements through new virtual tools like Zoom and Microsoft’s teams. In addition, HCPs have seen pharma companies change what they communicate about beyond just product information by embracing these new digital tools and integrating them into their business as usual

Bringing care to the patient at home

As well as more virtual communications another key shift is methods and devices that support self-administration and remote monitoring are now more valued by healthcare providers than prior to the pandemic. This makes complete sense as HCP’s operate remotely and is backed up by research: 65% of all HCPs said they value self-administration methods for patients (auto-injectors or on body devices) more than they did preCOVID-19 (Accenture Research on 120 health professionals across May-June 2020, 120 participants from each country: USA, UK, France, Germany, China & Japan. 2020)

Engaging content supporting Virtual meetings

Today’s HCPs operating in a virtual world expect relevant content delivered consistently. Pharma brand marketers must embed how to create an improved, sustainable, and differentiated customer experience. This is what is now expected in a post-pandemic world. A useful approach is to consider how you can engage HCPs using a variety of content programming, formats, and delivery methods. You might create an interactive or impressive educational experience through engaging visuals, data sets, or video. Video, in particular, is especially popular with HCPs as quality and access through smartphones has increasingly improved. With 5G on the horizon, we expect video and creative applications of immersive content will become more commonplace

Growing importance of data insights to drive strategy



Accelerated digital transformation is unleashing a huge increase in data volume and sources including marketing analytics, social listening, data analytics, forecasting, and much more. To deliver effective healthcare solutions for patients and HCPs, health information systems must work together in 2021 across organizational boundaries to extract meaningful insights that can be acted on at speed. Internally, this might mean updating legacy systems and combining multiple data sources like ERP and marketing/sales systems need to be effective. What is certain is data competency and skills will be critically important for 2021 and beyond

Agile as a default as a working framework



Speed of response has heightened the expectations for fast-acting messaging and approval of materials. The enhanced use of data and technology to stay informed, stay connected, derive insights, measure the effectiveness of new tactics, and stay productive has reaffirmed the fact that every function in a pharma organization must raise its agility and digital at speed. This puts the onus on digital capability building and training across the organization while recruiting more digital capability and agile skills like scrum and design thinking across all departments

Growth of Artificial Intelligence



Artificial intelligence offers a huge range of potential applications that are potentially transformative. These applications include accelerating processes and activities in R&D, Increasing accuracy and speed of data forecasting, the use in clinical trials, the creations of conversational interfaces like chatbots, and numerous implications for the way in which pharma currently operates. The challenge in 2021 will be more about cultural readiness for Pharma company’s ability to extract AI’s full potential to facilitate or accelerate innovation, efficiency or access to care. Boston Consulting Group predicts that expenditure on AI-related tools will exceed US$8 billion annually by 2022 across seven segments of the healthcare chain: remote prevention and care; diagnostics support; treatment pathways and support; drug discovery and development; operations; sales and marketing; and support functions.

The Worlds Tech Giants Are coming

In November 2020, following the purchase of Pillback 2 years prior, Amazon quietly launched Amazon Pharma in the US, its new online and mobile prescription medication ordering and fulfillment service. This is arguably Amazon’s most ambitious push into the Pharma/healthcare business to-date, one that could open very large, new revenue opportunities, especially as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic pushes consumers towards more remote care using online channels for all their shopping needs. Apple showed displayed simmering ambitions in health. The launch of Apple’s Watch 6 in September included breakthrough wellness and fitness capabilities to measure the oxygen saturation of the user’s blood, so they can better understand their overall fitness and wellness. The author predicts more moves by the tech giants into Pharma and health

2020 has was been eventful for the Pharma industry but 2021 promises more with digital and emerging technologies at the forefront

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