Connected Planning Empowers Better Insight, Control and Outcomes for Pharma Companies
By Rick Romeo and Russell Gummelt
The pharmaceutical industry operates in an incredibly complex environment.
Strict regulations, which differ by country and region, govern everything from the appropriate process for clinical drug trials to the manufacture of new and existing medicines. Pharma companies must also effectively and efficiently develop strategies, forecasts and insights related to demand, sales, supply chain management and many other crucial areas of operation. And those efforts must take into account the additional complications of operating across several areas of the globe.
Effective tools for connected planning, as well as the support of knowledgeable consultants who can guide the implementation and use of such systems, can prove vital in reducing inefficiencies and reaching key business goals. Let’s look at some specific areas of operation in which these resources can offer substantial value.
Connected planning’s influence on key areas of operation
Generally, connected planning offers a wide range of opportunities for automating key planning and forecasting processes. That means generating deeper and more comprehensive insights while reducing the burden on staff in terms of manual and repetitive tasks. Companies leverage this intelligence to better understand operational drivers and financial impacts.
More specifically, connected planning can offer crucial support to pharma companies in these areas, among others:
Scenario planning
The nature of clinical development makes scenario planning around product introductions especially important. Developing what-if scenarios centered on a product launch at different times during the year leads to valuable insights into feasibility, profitability and other core considerations. Accounting for the drug approval timeline in this process is a unique need for pharma companies as well as a critical consideration.
Organizations can better understand what it means to bring a product to market in Q3 versus Q4, for example, through effective and highly detailed modeling. The specific advantages and drawbacks associated with each time frame become clearer, and leaders within the organization can act more confidently with this information in hand.
Sales forecasting
A successful product launch in the pharma industry requires an incredible level of detail to ascertain the likely market for a specific drug. An effective model can start with the total number of residents within a country, then move down through several filters to determine an informed estimate of potential users. That includes:
How many individuals have the ailment the product is designed to treat.
The overall incidence of disease to be treated.
How likely it is for a patient prescribed a medication to fill that prescription (uptake rate.)
How much market share can likely be captured.
This highly-focused projection can then inform other areas of operation, such as pricing and supply chain management.
Regulatory oversight and compliance
The strict regulations applied across every pharma company’s operations require careful attention to detail and regular review for effective compliance. The consumable nature of many pharma products, as well as their finite shelf-life, mean efficient production — in line with anticipated demand — and distribution within a limited window of time is crucial.
Demand planning tools can help to keep a close eye on pharma products, tracking batches of product SKUs developed within a time frame of just a few days and differentiating between the groups that came before and after. That information can then be connected to other processes, such as price forecasting, to increase transparency and realize a more positive result.
Pricing
With insight into product availability at the time-limited SKU level and detailed sales forecasting, establishing pricing and making adjustments based on client need becomes much more straightforward.
The cost of a drug at the wholesale level for hospitals and health systems can vary significantly based on region, target market, availability, and order volume. With the comprehensiveness that connected planning can provide, staff in charge of setting prices can leverage up-to-date and relevant information that then informs the price set for a specific purchaser.
Clinical trials
The need to keep clinical trials completely separate from all other aspects of operation can make effective and compliant planning seem like a nearly impossible goal to achieve in the pharma industry. High-performing connected planning tools, such as Anaplan, can be implemented in entirely distinct and separate iterations to provide insights into clinical trials without crossing the regulatory barrier.
The value of dependable consultants in connected planning
A connected planning tool can transform the way a pharma company operates, offering deep and valuable insights across operations to paint a more complete picture of key business functions. Implementing a system with the power to create such change requires skilled and experienced consultants to keep the project on track, optimize strategy and offer knowledgeable support throughout the process.
Allitx brings a wealth of insight to every connected planning project, recognizing the similarities and differences that arise in each implementation. With experts in several fields, ranging from the supply chain to financial planning, we build a team that is uniquely suited to realize positive outcomes for our clients.
Anaplan is not specific to a single industry or use case, and that broad functionality makes the program useful across many industries and economic sectors. Our teams are made up of professionals with the specialized professional backgrounds needed to understand the specific demands of a given project. They can connect the many relevant areas of planning, creating a solution tailored to the needs of an industry and individual organization.
Allitix is proud to be an Anaplan Gold Partner, a designation that demonstrates our unparalleled knowledge and experience in implementing this connected planning solution for our customers. Thanks to our teams’ consistent commitment to the best possible outcomes for our clients, we have successfully executed more than 150 projects.
Your company has the power to better understand, forecast, connect, automate and adjust its operations, even in such a specialized and highly regulated industry. To learn more, get in touch with us today.