A strategic partnership between pharma and healthtech firms can drive innovative changes, development and deployment of digital medicine. In an era of technology and medical innovation, it comes as no surprise that patient care is moving from drugs and devices to also incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) based solutions.
Gone are the days when pharma companies relied on in-house research and development and sales and product marketing strategies. Pharma companies bring into the equation their expertise in drug development, regulatory compliance, market validation and funding. Connected health offers cutting-edge digital solutions, predictive, intuitive technology and digital tools like AI and wearables, ensuring enriched patient care, unparalleled drug discovery, and top-notch clinical development planning.
However, the partnership is not devoid of its challenges. If not managed carefully, it can lead to operational inefficiencies, regulatory non-compliance and often mishandling of patient data.
Value of partnership between pharma and digital healthtech
· Pharma’s strategic partnership with digital healthtech adds value to both partners. The growing use cases of healthtech platforms and data contribution in clinical trial discovery are demonstrative of how both are dependent on each other.
· Partnerships can also help save on operational costs associated with building in-house digital health solutions and maintaining the technology required. It results in more time spent on core projects.
· The partnership is conducive to the development of innovative solutions that allow continuous patient monitoring and accelerate drug discovery.
While it has many other benefits to offer, partnerships are often centered on developing solutions such as software as a medical device (SaMD), clinical support tools, and digital therapeutics. However, the potential value of these partnerships is yet to be seen in cases where multiple solutions are required.
Risks involved with pharma and digital healthtech partnerships
· Implementation and scaling of new solutions across different data points and healthcare systems can be challenging. Navigating a stringent regulatory environment, digital infrastructure, engagement and achieving the prerequisites to commercialization requires market shaping. However, this capability is still in its exploration stage.
· The partnerships may not always result in instant profits. Thus, investors solely focused on high returns may pressure healthtech to prioritize short-term review over long-term value creation and patient outcome.
· Multilateralism is a practice that involves multiple partners or stakeholders. However, capabilities and contracts are generally not designed for multiple partnerships as it can lead to conflicting priorities and difficulties in aligning common interests.
To effectively mitigate these risks and benefit from this partnership, pharma companies can implement these guiding principles: –
· Choose companies carefully and consider which capabilities they want to outsource.
· Prioritize patient centricity, think beyond individual point solutions, and ensure teams are structured and ready to encourage patient journey transformation.
· Develop a plan for optimizing current pathways with planned standalone SaMD use cases
· Ensure the solutions provided address the key pain points of the industry.
The synergy between pharmaceutical and their healthtech counterparts is essential for driving forward digital connected health, ensuring healthcare remains responsive to patient-centric care. The partnerships will also help resolve large-scale healthcare crises worldwide.