Thoughts from the Centre
A personal take on topical issues impacting the Healthcare and Life Sciences sector powered by Deloitte’s UK Centre for Health Solutions.
The value of efficient data management in digital drug development era
By Naveed Panjwani, Clinical R&D Consulting Lead (Europe) and Elliot Stamp, Clinical R&D AI & Data Lead (Europe)
In the ever-evolving landscape of pharmaceutical (pharma) R&D, the pivotal role of data management is becoming increasingly important. As the industry grapples with soaring complexities and escalating costs associated with bringing new drugs to market, harnessing and analysing data has emerged as a crucial catalyst for progress. In this landscape, where precision and efficiency are paramount, data stands as the linchpin that distinguishes visionary pharma companies from their peers. In this blog, we explore the business value of harnessing data to enhance digitalisation of R&D activities, the challenges associated, and the transformation required to increase productivity and achieve cost-efficient cycle times in pharma R&D.
Mental health awareness month
In the UK, from May 13-19, 2024, we celebrated Mental Health Awareness Week, an annual event led by the Mental Health Foundation, to raise awareness, reduce stigma and promote good mental health for all. In the US, the whole of May is Mental Health Awareness month. Importantly, as is becoming increasingly clear, awareness of and an understanding of mental health issues is something that should be front of mind of all year round. For that reason, our blog this week repurposes a blog that appeared first as a US Center for Health Solutions Health Forward blog authored by the Chair of Deloitte US, whose message on the importance of prioritising psychological health in the workplace resonated strongly with my team and I here in the UK Centre.
May is mental health awareness month: Authentic leadership, a sense of purpose, can help employees thrive
By Lara Abrash, Chair, Deloitte US
Standardization, more capacity may be needed as CGTs grow
By Jennifer Rabin, Specialist Leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP
Cell and gene therapies (CGT) hold the promise of personalised medicine and involve the use of living cells or genetic material to treat or cure some cancers, genetic disorders, and autoimmune diseases. With a wave of new gene therapies on the horizon, the CGT market is expected to nearly quadruple over the next five years (from $5.3 billion in 2022 to $19.9 billion by 2027).1 However, the development and the use of CGT also come with significant challenges, including manufacturing, regulation and reimbursement. Indeed, CGTs are complex, expensive, and require specialised manufacturing processes, equipment and expertise, which limit their availability and scale-up. Delivery is particularly challenging, requiring approved centres and specialist expertise, limiting the number of patients that can be treated. Moreover, their high costs can strain healthcare budgets and limit patient access. In this blog, I delve into the insights of the Deloitte NextGen Therapies Industry Working Group (IWG) on overcoming these challenges.
Executing divestments successfully in biopharma: the dos and don’ts
By Rishi Unnikrishnan, Senior Manager, and Vanessa Parra Ferreira, Senior Manager, Deloitte
As companies evolve and review their portfolios, boards have long used divestitures as a strategic tool to sell brands or business units that they no longer consider as part of their core business. The cash proceedings are then invested in assets and services that are more closely aligned with their business growth strategy. In the biopharma industry, the number of divestments has increased dramatically over the past two years. In this blog we explore the common rationale behind biopharma divestiture transactions and how a five-step approach can help ensure the divestiture transaction realises optimal value.
Mental health and employers: The business case to support employees and, in particular, working parents
By Elizabeth Hampson, Partner and lead for Deloitte’s Health Equity Institute Europe, and Maria João Cruz, Manager, Deloitte
This week, 13th to 19th May 2024, is Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW), an annual event led by the Mental Health Foundation, to raise awareness, reduce stigma and promote good mental health for all.1 This year MHAW coincides with the launch of the fourth edition of our report series - ‘Mental health and employers: the case for investment’. Our 2024 report refreshes our findings on: the costs for employers of poor mental health in the workplace; the business case for investing in a mentally healthy workplace; and recommended actions for employers. Furthermore, given that children and young people’s mental health is an important focus for Deloitte’s Health Equity Institute, with one in five children and young people having a probable mental health disorder, we have also examined how concerns over children and young people’s mental health impacts working parents and what this means for employers.2 Our blog this week shares the key findings from our report.
Choosing planet over plastic is choosing health
By Márcia Costa, Manager, and Shreya Nagpal, Research Analyst, Centre for Health Solutions
Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 to remind us to protect our environment and build a sustainable future for all. This year, the theme ‘Planet vs. Plastics’ was aimed at raising awareness of plastic pollution to safeguard human and planetary health. While there is increasing acknowledgement of the impact of plastics on our physical environment, due to the growing mountains of non-biodegradable waste, increase in greenhouse gas emissions and worsening climate change; there is also increasing evidence of its impact on the sustainability of marine and other wildlife and how plastic waste is damaging soil and poisoning groundwater. Which, in turn, has a direct effect on human health, causing respiratory, hormonal and infectious diseases, also cancers and reproductive issues.1 This blog explores the deleterious impact of plastic on human health and discusses some of the critical solutions to reduce plastic use and pollution.
Smart health enterprise model could enhance patient experiences and outcomes
By Anwesha Dutta, managing director, and Haleigh Sinkewich, senior manager, Deloitte Consulting LLP
European health systems are facing substantial challenges in continuing to deliver high-quality care to their citizens. Challenges include ageing populations, cultural shifts, increasing costs of innovation, workforce shortages and rising health inequalities and health complexities stemming from climate change. The US faces many of the same challenges. As shown in our 2023 Future of Health in Europe report, emergent technologies and digital transformation are key to optimise care delivery, workforce efficiency and back-office cost-effectiveness, reducing costs while improving patients’ experiences and outcomes. This week’s blog which first appeared as a US Center for Health Solution’s Health Forward blog, explores how smart technologies could transform the patient care journey, leading to a better patient experience and improved health outcomes.
Unleash AI’s potential - Measuring the return from pharmaceutical innovation
By Emily May and Shreya Nagpal, Centre for Health Solutions
Since 2010, we have published an annual report exploring the performance of the biopharmaceutical (biopharma) industry in generating returns from investment in innovative new medicines. This week we launched our 14th annual report, Unleash AI’s potential: Measuring the return from pharmaceutical innovation, which analyses the current state of biopharma research and development (R&D) across a cohort of 20 leading biopharma companies. This year's modelling calculates that the internal rate of return (IRR) of the cohort has risen to 4.1 per cent, up from the record low of 1.2 per cent in 2022, marking a welcome sign of recovery from the declining trend in IRR seen over the past decade. This week’s blog explores the report findings and discusses how unleashing AI’s potential could be the key to improving longstanding internal and external productivity challenges across the biopharma R&D industry.
Transforming through technology: Life sciences leaders’ perspective on GenAI
By Karen Taylor, Director of the Centre for Health Solutions and Shreya Nagpal, Research Analyst, Deloitte
The arrival of generative AI (GenAI) heralds the potential for significant disruption and opportunity across all industries, including unlocking business value, supercharging productivity, and creating entirely new products, services and business models. In January 2024, Deloitte published a global report, The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise – Now decides next which explored the current state and future expectations of GenAI adoption. This report included a survey conducted between October and December 2023 to capture the sentiments of 2,835 AI-savvy business and technology leaders, across six industries and 16 countries.1 One of these industries is Life Sciences and Health Care (LSHC) which is absolutely ripe for disruption. This week’s blog explores the responses of LSHC leaders to gain an understanding of the current state of Gen AI adoption in the industry.
World Health Day: how might Deloitte’s Future of Health help deliver Universal Health Coverage and the human right to health?
By Karen Taylor, Director, Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions
All countries face substantial challenges in maintaining high-quality healthcare, including growing demands, rigid financing models, a scarcity of skilled healthcare workers, and rising health inequalities that have been exacerbated by climate change. Despite the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring health as a human right more than 75 years ago, healthcare funding, access and outcomes vary widely.1 Moreover, Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has largely stalled and financial protection has worsened.2 Deloitte’s Future of Health (FoH) vision paints a picture of a new paradigm where digital transformation, AI, emergent technologies and an increase in disruptive healthcare providers, enables a shift from the current reactive treatment model to a more cost-effective and sustainable, proactive health and wellbeing model. This week’s blog is aimed at exploring the challenges highlighted by World Health Day (celebrated on 7th of April every year) and its theme ‘My health, my right’,3 and how our FoH vision might help deliver better health for all.