Skip to content
Contract Lifecycle Management – Icertis
  • Platform
    • ICI Platform
    • Business Applications
      • Clinical Trials
      • Collaboration Portal
      • GDPR Compliance
      • Matter Management
      • Obligation Management
      • Rebates and Promotion App
      • Proposal Management
      • Risk Management
      • Sourcing
      • Supplier Onboarding
      • Supplier Relationship Management
    • Experiences
      • Coupa
      • Microsoft
      • Salesforce
      • SAP
      • Workday
    • AI Applications
      • AI Studio
      • DiscoverAI
      • NegotiateAI
      • VisualizeAI
    • Blockchain
  • Solutions
    • Department Solutions
      • Corporate
      • Finance
      • Legal
      • Procurement
      • Sales
    • Industry Solutions
      • Consulting and IT Services
      • Distribution
      • Energy and Utilities
      • Federal
      • Financial Services
      • Healthcare Payer
      • Healthcare Provider
      • Life Sciences | Medical Technology
      • Manufacturing
      • Pharmaceutical
      • Retail
      • State & Local Government
      • Technology
      • Transportation
  • Customers
    • Customers
      • Best Buy
      • Daimler AG
      • Microsoft
      • Sanofi
      • Wipro
      • See All
  • Our Partners
    • Our Partners
      • Adobe
      • Microsoft
      • Salesforce
      • SAP
      • Workday
      • See All
  • Resources
    • Featured Resources
      • Analyst Reports
      • Blog
      • Case Studies
      • eBooks
      • Icertis CLM Toolkit
      • ICI Academy
      • Podcasts
      • Videos
      • Webcasts
  • Company
    • About
      • Leadership Team
      • Board
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Careers
      • Events
      • Media Kit
      • Newsroom
    • Why Icertis?
      • Bold Vision
      • Enduring Commitment
      • Unrivaled Expertise
  • Links
    • Demo
    • Contact Sales
  • Platform
    • ICI Platform
    • Business Applications
      • Clinical Trials
      • Collaboration Portal
      • GDPR Compliance
      • Matter Management
      • Obligation Management
      • Rebates and Promotion App
      • Proposal Management
      • Risk Management
      • Sourcing
      • Supplier Onboarding
      • Supplier Relationship Management
    • Experiences
      • Coupa
      • Microsoft
      • Salesforce
      • SAP
      • Workday
    • AI Applications
      • AI Studio
      • DiscoverAI
      • NegotiateAI
      • VisualizeAI
    • Blockchain
  • Solutions
    • Department Solutions
      • Corporate
      • Finance
      • Legal
      • Procurement
      • Sales
    • Industry Solutions
      • Consulting and IT Services
      • Distribution
      • Energy and Utilities
      • Federal
      • Financial Services
      • Healthcare Payer
      • Healthcare Provider
      • Life Sciences | Medical Technology
      • Manufacturing
      • Pharmaceutical
      • Retail
      • State & Local Government
      • Technology
      • Transportation
  • Customers
    • Customers
      • Best Buy
      • Daimler AG
      • Microsoft
      • Sanofi
      • Wipro
      • See All
  • Our Partners
    • Our Partners
      • Adobe
      • Microsoft
      • Salesforce
      • SAP
      • Workday
      • See All
  • Resources
    • Featured Resources
      • Analyst Reports
      • Blog
      • Case Studies
      • eBooks
      • Icertis CLM Toolkit
      • ICI Academy
      • Podcasts
      • Videos
      • Webcasts
  • Company
    • About
      • Leadership Team
      • Board
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Careers
      • Events
      • Media Kit
      • Newsroom
    • Why Icertis?
      • Bold Vision
      • Enduring Commitment
      • Unrivaled Expertise
  • Links
    • Demo
    • Contact Sales
Blog hero image
Home > Blog > Technology and AI Are the Key to Fast Tracking Drug R&D
Contract Intelligence Blog

Dec 01, 2018

Neal Singh

Technology and AI Are the Key to Fast Tracking Drug R&D

  • science laboratory test tubes

This article first appeared in European Pharmaceutical Manufacturer 

The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a period of rapid change. Merger and acquisition activity is high, regulations are becoming more stringent, and companies are forced to be evermore focused on cost. Regulation challenges were recently made more complex by the introduction of GDPR and uncertainty in Europe around Brexit.

One area of pharma that is particularly impacted is R&D. Between 2010 and 2017, the average cost to develop a pharmaceutical compound, from discovery through launch, rose by 82%  from $1.19 billion to $2.17 billion. Spending can be reduced by speeding up time to market, but with multiple legal hurdles to jump before a company can generate revenue, working quicker can be difficult.

We are, however, starting to see digital technology revolutionize aspects of the pharmaceutical industry. Technology has the potential to disrupt everything, from the way trials are conducted to how medicine is manufactured and delivered. One digital initiative being undertaken at many of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies is enterprise contract management.

The Central Role of Contracts

Pharmaceutical operations involve relationships with a mix of external stakeholders, which are typically defined by contracts; none more so than R&D. A pharmaceutical company’s relationship with partners is business critical, so simplifying and automating processes such as contract negotiations adds significant value. Missed entitlements, unwanted expiries and renewals, and non-compliant clauses can damage important business relationships, slow down progress and consequently cost money.

Manual processes for managing contracts can make visibility into complex supply chains impossible – particularly when contracts are organized ‘back-to-back’ (whereby a vendor contracts with another vendor to fulfill an obligation) – and expose companies to regulatory liabilities.

Time is Money in Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are a central aspect of R&D in pharma and cause some of the greatest delays. According to the Association of Clinical Research Professionals, contract and budget negotiations are responsible for 49% of study delays. The axiom” time is money” rings true.

As a result, a function that enables sponsors and Contract Research Organisations (CRO) to manage clinical agreements and track budgets as part of a trial is likely to deliver significant value. By using technology to better manage contracts around clinical trials and R&D work, pharmaceutical firms can better ensure compliance, improve visibility and collaboration with CROs by enabling greater access to contracts, and more easily track budget consumption. Introducing contract management can reduce contract cycle times by up to 80%, dramatically increasing time to revenue.

Accelerate and Optimize Your R&D Processes

Today’s pharmaceutical firms are facing a growing number of business challenges and must find ways to accelerate their operations. By protecting against regulatory risks and speeding up traditionally slow and complex R&D processes, there exists an opportunity to improve time to revenue and ultimately, the delivery of crucial medicines to patients.

Better visibility across an organization can also directly save money by identifying where multiple departments are contracting with the same vendor. For example, different development teams might be sourcing the same services separately from one supplier. By recognizing where these overlaps exist, a company can use this information to ensure consistent terms and therefore reduce costs.

By leveraging the latest technologies in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and the cloud within the parameters of contract management software, pharmaceutical firms can unlock R&D bottlenecks and be more agile and better prepared for the challenges the industry faces. Cognitive Services can be used to stitch together several cognitive abilities (Text Analytics, Bing Entity Search API, Translator Text API and others) to infuse AI within contracts. Machine Learning for Text Analytics can be applied to train AI models. AI can be used for intelligent clause identification and attribute extraction to reduce the time to digitize legacy and third-party contracts by up to 80%, improve post-execution contract compliance by up to 90%, reduce cost of compliance by up to 60% and discover new revenue opportunities in legacy contracts.

Icertis Remains a Leader in the Q1 2021 Forrester Wave

Icertis has again been recognized as a Leader in the Forrester Wave: Contract Lifecycle Management For All Contracts Q1 2021 report. This is the second consecutive Wave report to recognize Icertis as a Leader. Read the report and learn more about the impact of CLM and why Icertis has been named a Leader.

Download the 2021 Forrester Wave Report

2019-06-04T20:22:18-07:00
❮Prev
Blog
Next❯

Explore more topics

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Blockchain
  • Company Updates
  • Contract Intelligence
  • Contract Management Software
  • COVID-19
  • Icertis Culture
  • Industry News & Insights
  • Legal
  • Partner Stories
  • Risk and Compliance
  • Sales
  • Sourcing
  • Success Stories
The recognized analyst leader for CLM.
  • See a Demo
  • Contact
  • Platform & Software
    • Contract Management Platform
    • Blockchain Contract Framework
    • Customers
    • Experiences
    • Our Partners
    • Support
  • Solutions & Applications
    • AI Applications
    • Business Applications
    • CLM Solutions by Department
    • CLM Solutions by Industry
  • Resources
    • Analyst Reports
    • Blog
    • Case Studies
    • COVID-19 Resources
    • eBooks
    • Icertis CLM Toolkit
    • Icertis Group Demo
    • Podcasts
    • Webcasts
    • What is CLM?
    • What is Contract Management?
    • What is Contract Management Software?
  • Company
    • About Icertis
    • Awards
    • Careers
    • Contact
    • Leadership Team
    • Board Members
    • Events
    • Foundation
    • Newsroom
    • Media Resources
    • Why Icertis
  • English

© Copyright 2022 Icertis. All rights reserved.

  • Privacy Statement
  • Disclaimer
  • Cookie Policy
  • Sitemap