Reinventing R&D in the age of AI - How intelligent technologies are transforming biopharma

Life-changing interventions that have previously been pipedreams are now within reach for the biopharma industry, made possible through an increasingly sophisticated understanding of human biology, coupled with unparalleled advances in technology. But, while intelligent technologies promise to accelerate scientific advances and address some of the fundamental R&D challenges that existed for a decade, going forward they require capital investment and a thoughtful approach.

A new report from Accenture Life Sciences, ‘Reinventing R&D in the age of AI – How intelligent technologies are transforming biopharma’, assesses how – by embracing technology, reinventing workforces, and refocusing organisational priorities – biopharma can improve R&D efficiency and patient outcomes and, ultimately, secure growth in an increasingly challenging macro environment.

Thomas Lehmann, Managing Director in Accenture Life Sciences, discussed the report further with pharmaphorum.

Balancing scientific and technological innovation

“If you look at, historically, the difficulty to identify new targets, select those targets, and bring those through clinical development – that has always been challenging,” said Lehmann. “Now, science, on one hand, is better, [but] it's also harder. We are seeing technology advancing to a place where it is catching up with the scientific potential of these new modalities, but it is increasingly making it hard to really say, ‘How do I develop an understanding of human biology and then move it forward through the process?’”

“To really take advantage of this new science and to take advantage of these new technologies, requires significant capital investment,” he continued. “There needs to be a balance between scientific innovation and technology innovation. Ultimately, as R&D organisations are thinking about the allocation of capital […] to be able to balance between those two requires a fairly significant increase in the amount of ongoing capital investment to just the digital initiatives.”

In 2021, Accenture’s report, ‘Billions to Millions: Improving R&D Productivity’, highlighted the escalating costs and extended timelines of drug development amid profitability challenges. At that time, technologies like cloud computing and AI were just beginning to integrate into biopharma R&D, while intelligent technologies such as generative AI and large language models were in their infancy, and today these advances, combined with a deeper understanding of biology, have evolved biopharma R&D. Subsequently, Accenture’s current perspective is that approximately 8%-10% of an R&D annual budget needs to be in the space that balances both scientific and technological innovation.

“Part of the challenge today is a lot of that investment is just going to keep the lights on and not necessarily new innovations and technologies,” Lehmann noted. “Finding a better balance between the required ‘keep the lights on’ and what's new is probably Step One. Step Two is then increasing the level of investment to take advantage of these new technologies.”

Capitalising on the reinvention mindset

We know that new and complex science, enabled by technology, is driving a veritable scientific renaissance. Biopharma companies can improve patient outcomes, streamline clinical trials, and increase clinical success rates, boosting their commercial potential, by continuously reinventing themselves.

“It's not about making these small, incremental changes to where you've been, but actually having a proper reinvention mindset,” explained Lehmann. “If I look at the operational side of clinical trials, from how protocols are designed, and how they're thinking about the feasibility of the design to recruit patients, to the way in which patients are engaged during clinical trials – more of the same is not going to allow us to change this process, and will certainly not address this economic model for R&D, which is increasingly under pressure.”

“Accenture’s perspective here is, we're at this moment where we see good portfolios of assets in most companies' pipelines right now,” he continued. “It's not that there's a lack of things to work on. It's the fact that their ability to move it through this development engine is a bit constrained by the fact that it's a traditional way of working.”

“Our perspective is that R&D does require more of a reinvention mindset: how do we fundamentally think differently about the way in which we design trials? How do we think differently about the way we select our sites and the way we recruit our patients?, How do we think differently around how we process and prepare data for analysis and ultimately regulatory submissions? With the expectation that you can seriously reduce the length of time in this process,” he added. “We've seen companies who have really committed to this, taking a year, even two years off the development cycle.”

“That ‘reinvention’ word is intentional: we do believe that companies that embrace this will actually see disproportionate return on the investment they put into it, which is something we've seen across industries,” Lehmann also noted.

GenAI and the technological maturation process

Since 2021, there's been considerable progress when it comes to GenAI and LLMs within R&D.

“If I go back to 2021, many of the technologies we have today existed then, but were not being talked about to the degree that they are today. While we were putting a perspective forward around the potential to significantly reduce the amount of cost it takes to move assets or products through the R&D pipeline, the maturity of the technology or the willingness to consider these newer technologies wasn't there yet. I think we're at a different spot now.”

“What really is going to drive benefit?” he posited. “Am I putting this in the core of my workflow, so I'm actually changing the way we operate? I think we're starting to see real progress, I'd say in the last several months in that space, and expect that to carry into 2025.”

PTRS and future commercial value

The report also reveals that companies outperforming their peers in terms of relative cycle times and probability of technical and regulatory success (PTRS) rates generally experienced larger growth in enterprise values. However, these improved success rates and cycle times are no longer sufficient to generate future commercial value. To achieve that uplift, careful consideration of future potential and value of the assets must be done at earlier stages than traditional value discussions.

“PTRS has been a focus for a long time: the reality here is, most of what you're trying to do in clinical development is to prove the technical success side of it, as well as the human safety side,” explained Lehmann. “The regulatory piece and, ultimately, the pricing and reimbursement side is the extra hurdle that you need to continue to look at: what will the regulatory environment be when you actually get to the point at which you're putting this forward for regulatory approval? And the pricing and reimbursement model may be changing depending on where a company is relative to their competitors.”

“I think most governance models that exist within R&D look at this, but there's a need to look at this even earlier,” he continued. “Things like the Inflation Reduction Act here in the US – there are things that have changed the world as far as what the commercial potential may be, as far as what might be waiting for you at the end of the R&D cycle. Even if it's meeting that medical need, it may just not make sense to continue with it, unfortunately.”

“Because of the effects of the Inflation Reduction Act and the US government's ability to directly negotiate, our estimates are $200-$400 plus billion of potential revenue [is] at risk – that's Part One,” said Lehmann. “Part Two is the normal loss of exclusivity. You've got another couple hundred billion of revenue today that in the 2026-2030 range will not be there because products will come off-patent and you're going to have other options besides the products that are there today.”

So, what has changed? The balance point is an important one between where organisations have been, where they're going, and then ultimately how that enables this future model, which is going to be much more technology enabled than it has been in the past.

Collaboration, integration, automation

What does continue to be seen is a lot of collaboration between biopharma companies and academic research, and biopharma companies collaborating with each other for combination therapies.

“I think some of the technology developments will actually facilitate that more so than we've had in the past, where we're pushing Excel spreadsheets and secure files across, as opposed to more modern ways in which to collaborate around data,” noted Lehmann. “The biggest thing around integration is the focus on data right now; there's so much data that's out there. How do I actually bring it together or connect it in a way that I can get value out of it?”

Industry is, then, at a place where it feels as if it is poised for significant change.

“I think it's an exciting time. Not all of this technology will play out as we hoped, not all of the scientific advancements will play out, but it never has. It feels like this is different,” Lehmann concluded.

About the author

Thomas Lehmann is the Accenture US Life Sciences Consulting and Americas Life Sciences Industry Network Lead, bringing over 25 years of experience to the role. Lehmann provides leadership for a diverse life sciences consulting business, delivering high-impact change across the value chain, including R&D, labs, supply chain & operations, Quality, commercial, and enterprise functions. Additionally, Lehmann is responsible for activating Accenture’s extensive life sciences network, encompassing strategy, consulting, technology, and operations, to address clients’ critical business objectives. Each month, Lehmann hosts the podcast, ‘The Lens: Life Sciences Reinvention in Focus’, featuring insightful conversations with industry leaders on timely topics in life sciences. You can listen to the latest podcast here or by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts.

www.accenture.com/us-en/podcast/life-sciences

About Accenture

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