Executive Spotlight: A Conversation with Peter Gassner

This video provides an in-depth conversation with Peter Gassner, CEO of Veeva Systems, focusing on the state and future trajectory of digital transformation within the life sciences industry. Gassner asserts that while digital disruption has fundamentally transformed sectors like travel (Uber, Airbnb) and retail (Amazon), it is only just beginning to take hold in life sciences due to the unique complexities surrounding human health, safety, regulatory environments, and intellectual property. He posits that this transformation, when fully realized, will significantly improve efficiency and ease of access for the end customers: patients, clinical investigators, and prescribing physicians.

Gassner identifies a crucial turning point in the industry's digital maturity: the realization that successful digital disruption requires collective effort and collaboration. He cites the formation of industry groups like TransCelerate on the R&D side and Align Biopharma on the commercial side as evidence that the life sciences sector is beginning to standardize processes and technologies. Specifically regarding customer engagement, Veeva is focused on transforming interactions in a digital sense by enabling clinical investigators and physicians to access necessary information in a standard format, eliminating the need for multiple logins and disparate systems across different pharmaceutical companies. Align Biopharma is the technical standards body driving this standardization, allowing technology providers like Veeva to build conforming products that unify the industry experience.

Looking toward the next frontier, Gassner highlights Veeva’s expanding focus beyond commercial operations into the R&D side of life sciences. Major areas of product progress include quality and manufacturing, regulatory affairs, and the clinical domain. A significant goal in clinical operations is the transformation of the process by eliminating paper, thereby accelerating the speed of clinical trial development—a critical bottleneck in drug development. Furthermore, Gassner elaborates on the value proposition of machine learning (ML) and data science. Veeva is making tremendous investment in this area, aiming to aggregate and analyze the vast amounts of usage data generated by hundreds of thousands of users across all their applications. This centralized data science effort is intended to provide fundamental insights and reporting back to the industry, making ML and data science core to Veeva’s future strategy.

In closing, Gassner offers strategic advice to CEOs of pharmaceutical companies. He urges them to view technology primarily through the lens of employee engagement, recognizing that their people are their most important asset. Secondly, he stresses the necessity of industry partnerships to solve digital engagement and disruption challenges. He reminds CEOs that they share customers (e.g., Pfizer shares customers with Lilly and Merck) and must collaborate to enable a unified, efficient digital experience for those shared customers.

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Key Takeaways:

• Digital Disruption is Nascent in Life Sciences: Unlike other major industries, digital transformation is still in its early stages in the life sciences sector, primarily due to stringent regulatory requirements, safety concerns, and complex intellectual property issues.
• Collaboration is the Prerequisite for Transformation: The industry has passed a major hurdle by realizing that digital disruption can only be achieved through collective standardization and cooperation. This shift is exemplified by groups like TransCelerate (R&D focus) and Align Biopharma (Commercial focus).
• Standardization Drives Commercial Efficiency: The goal of commercial digital transformation is to simplify information access for healthcare professionals (HCPs) and clinical investigators. Standardization, facilitated by groups like Align Biopharma, eliminates fragmented digital experiences (e.g., needing different logins for every pharma company website).
• Veeva’s Strategic Expansion into R&D: The next major frontier for Veeva involves significant product progress in the R&D domain, specifically targeting quality and manufacturing, regulatory processes, and transforming clinical operations.
• Eliminating Paper in Clinical Trials: A key focus of R&D transformation is the digital overhaul of the clinical process to remove paper documentation, which is essential for accelerating the speed and efficiency of clinical trial development.
• Machine Learning as a Core Competency: Data science and machine learning are becoming fundamental to Veeva’s strategy. The company is investing heavily to centralize and analyze usage data from its applications to generate actionable insights and reports for the industry.
• Technology Must Prioritize Employee Engagement: CEOs in the life sciences industry should view technology investment primarily as a tool to enhance the engagement and effectiveness of their employees, who are the company’s most valuable asset.
• Embrace Shared Customer Responsibility: Pharma CEOs must recognize that they have shared customers across competitors (e.g., Pfizer, Lilly, Merck). Industry partnerships are essential to collectively solve digital engagement challenges and provide a cohesive experience for these shared customers.
• Align Biopharma Focuses on Technical Standards: Align Biopharma’s specific role is to create the technical standards that enable digital engagement, allowing software companies to build compliant products that ensure industry-wide interoperability and consistency.

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Tools/Resources Mentioned:

• Veeva Systems: The core platform provider discussed throughout the interview, specializing in solutions for commercial, medical, quality, and R&D operations in life sciences.
• TransCelerate: An industry collaboration group focused on accelerating R&D processes in life sciences.
• Align Biopharma: A standards group focused on creating technical standards for commercial engagement in the biopharma industry.

Key Concepts:

• Digital Disruption: The transformation of business models and processes across an industry through the integration of digital technology, leading to significant changes in how services are delivered and consumed.
• Customer Engagement (Digital Sense): The process of interacting with healthcare professionals, patients, and investigators through standardized, efficient digital channels, moving away from fragmented, company-specific systems.
• Clinical Process Transformation: The effort to digitize and streamline clinical trial operations, specifically targeting the elimination of paper-based processes to increase speed and efficiency in drug development.