Digital Innovation

Iris Loew-Friedrich, EVP & Chief Medical Officer, UCB

At UCB it is our vision is to amplify the power of scientific innovation through digital transformation, ensuring that we deliver the best individual experience so patients can live their best lives. We use the word transformation intentionally – if we do it correctly, it should greatly impact our ways of working and how we do business in the future. When we talk about digital business transformation or DBT at UCB, our focus is on how our approach, (and that our of industry) to business, needs to change to be successful in a digital world.

Digitalization comprises technology, data and, importantly, the culture needed to be most impactful in a digital world. It is also directly tied to effectiveness and efficiency. Automation is a good example. According to a recent report from the United Nations, digital technologies have advanced more rapidly than any innovation in our history – reaching around 50 per cent of the developing world’s population in only two decades. There is an enormous human impact as technologies can help make our world fairer, more peaceful, and more just. By enhancing connectivity, financial inclusion, access to trade and public services, technology can be a great equalizer. As a healthcare industry, we need to ask ourselves; how can we utilize technology and data, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, to better predict outcomes, deliver safer medicines, boost efficiency and effectiveness, and ultimately change, for the better, the way patients experience their care.

UCB has recognized the need for a business strategy in a digital world and that, consequently, leveraging digital throughout the business is not a choice but a necessity to enhance business performance and produce new value propositions. Digital technology has started to significantly change the way patients experience their care, how healthcare professionals practice medicine, and how companies like UCB develop solutions and bring them to the market. We know digital platform ecosystems are replacing traditional models driven largely by the digitalization of products, services, and business processes.

Today we now have more data available than ever before – this could be electronic health records, data from wearables, healthcare apps. A key question should be how do we look at combining this data with algorithms to potentially look at new business models for the future? Think about the current apps or online sites that leverage large amounts of data to save you time and money. How can we learn from these business models and what lessons do we want to take as we continue our business transformation as an industry? I know we often hear and speak about the Googles, Amazons and Facebooks of the world. We are aware of the ethical and data privacy challenges of their business models and we feel the impact that we allow them to have on our lives. And we admire the entrepreneurial ideas and willingness to think big and act accordingly. We might feel a bit like just being observers while these huge conglomerates transform our world. This is a misconception. In fact, the societal and economic conditions of today have never been better to allow disruption and innovation to come from all sides.

“By enhancing connectivity, financial inclusion, access to trade and public services, technology can be a great equalizer”

When we talk about digital solutions both in digitalizing our core business and transforming our value propositions, we are talking about creating value for patients. One example of this, is our ambition to establish a 360°data-enabled view of patient populations, a comprehensive integrated view of all relevant aspects from disease biology, experience of health and disease, care experience, treatment gaps to interactions on social media and psychological and socioeconomic conditions. To achieve the 360 degree view we will use diverse data sources, connect them and integrate them with the most advanced AI we have access to, for example our collaboration with Microsoft. Through this collaboration with Microsoft, UCB seeks to discover and develop medicines faster for people living with severe diseases. Microsoft will provide AI technology and scientists to work alongside UCB’s scientists and data specialists, aiming to allow UCB to discover new correlations and patterns critical to finding new and highly individualized medicines. Another example of a patient focused digital solution is the UCB-funded new, independent digital health company created to improve the care for people living with epilepsy. The company, called Nile AI, Inc., was founded with a clear mission in mind: to make the journey of every epilepsy patient predictable. Nile aims to improve the interaction between physicians and patients to optimize care delivery and is the first company of its kind in this space.

Digitalization provides important competitive advantages for businesses and improves the way they work such as increased flexibility and higher quality. It can also enhance our connectivity, allowing us to be more dialled into our patients and relevant stakeholders. We can listen and learn from them, better understand unmet needs, demands and priorities as the future of healthcare evolves. And of course, we must be mindful that though each organization has its own strengths there are other companies with competencies and capabilities in digital development, technologies and data that go beyond your typical pharma company. We must be cognizant of this, because research and development know no boundaries, and it is becoming increasingly important to combine our strengths with those of others.

In summary, our industry must embrace a new era of heightened digital business transformation and patient-centricity through greater data analytics and genuine co-creation, an era of agility, adaptability and growth mindset with a keen focus on transversal collaboration both internally and externally.

Healthcare

Microsoft

Financial

Artificial Intelligence

Machine Learning