StatusNeo

The Big Data Revolution in Big Pharma

Hey everyone, welcome to my first blog. Here, I talk about how the integration of Big Data with Cloud Computing has helped companies correctly capture customer sentiments through failsafe, scalable, cost-effective processes.

BACKGROUND

There was a time when the final verdict on business deals depended on opinions of the Ivy League meritocrats and financial advisors in some posh cabin, their say used to be the final word for business development in corporations. There was no cost-effective and logical SOP to gauge public sentiments and manipulate the market accordingly.

With the social media boom of the 2010s, we have seen an increase in digital interactions and online activities, and the ‘global village‘ philosophy is now one of the foundational aspects of any business. It is almost a mandate nowadays, for any business, before launching, to take into account the customer demands for a business idea. This involves harnessing the digital footprints of the users leaning into the specific market, the volume of which outweighs the abilities of the physical in-office hardware. In walks the ‘shiny, new thing‘ of Tech: the Cloud.

Well, Cloud Computing was exactly what it was named after: an intangible, mystical service provider that pretty much virtualized the entire product development ecosystem: from hosting virtual computers, and housing channel-wise real-time data, to consolidating and customizing the datasets as per requirement, before magically displaying customer sentiments at lightning speed on downstream dashboards.

THE HEALTHCARE BIG DATA BOOM

In the 2020s, a digital feed is overloaded with promotional pieces (mostly chaos). How do we, as a business, leverage the unruly data and separate the authentic customer response from the noise, for the greater good in Big Pharma? How do we identify the specific or general areas of improvement per territory, from a healthcare perspective? How should a business advertise their pharmaceutical launches in a strategic way to target customers who benefit the most from it, while simultaneously boosting the revenue and building optimum brand value?

The solution, in layman’s terms: build scalable, fault-tolerant pipelines that ingest the ‘noisy’ digital interactions per customer (the customer being a healthcare professional, e.g., a doctor/resident/pharmacists) from all mediums, standardize them based on industrial expectations and finally inject the factual insights onto an easy-to-use dashboard, for stakeholders to anticipate the current market trends and customer inclinations, which drives their business decision-making.

CLOUD FOR THE WIN IN THE BIG PHARMA

The scenario detailed above would have been only an abstract possibility, had it not been for the gradual incorporation of Cloud-based infrastructures in the Healthcare realm. For conscious business transformation, a myriad of data types must be accessible to one another in real-time across a huge variety of use cases, from discovery, development, clinical research, and finally, product launch. The Big Pharma generates data in billions or trillions during clinical trials and discovery, and the cloud comes to the rescue by compiling, archiving, and grouping the data in minimal time, and charges based on resource and service consumption, thus eliminating unnecessary financial strain.

The beauty of the Cloud resides in its effortless way to scale the resource consumption based on the project phase. Since research and clinical trials are already significant expenses from the capital, customizing service expenses based on usage is a great boost to the cost savings aspect: one of the keys to curbing capital loss.

HOW CLOUD DRIVES THE CUSTOMER FIRST APPROACH

Gone are the days of the norm of a 10-year-long drug lifecycle. Researchers are actively seeking ways to complete time-sensitive research and development in shorter time windows. This industry extends our lifespan, improves our lifestyle, and battles obscure diseases regularly. Their desire is the bare minimum, in today’s AI-driven world: fast development, easy handling of modifications, and seamless market launches to cater to the ever growing populace and their hunt for omnipotent solutions to physical ailments.

Imagine managing, manipulating, and monitoring unpatented, sensitive healthcare data and not encapsulating it with advanced security. Cloud infrastructure is here to help! It offers secure storage for sizable, sensitive information and supports data security, integrity, and compliance with regulatory entities. Reputable cloud service providers offer continuous security monitoring and incident response, and they can quickly identify security issues and apply patches. The extent of control or access can also be differently decided based on the user group in question. The decision to grant or revoke access rests with the administrators, the majority of the stakeholders are only granted high-level control of the system.

CONCLUSION

Undergoing a strenuous transformation, instilling a sense of trust among the senior personnel for their nod of approval to the new wave philosophies with only one aim in mind: contributing to the greater good, saving lives, swiftly, efficiently, and securely. Smart work over hard work was and will always be one of the primary objectives of cloud computing, to challenge the existing rigid beliefs about the possibility of achieving end-to-end virtualization and carefully tending to the needs of the hour.