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BIG DATA in Pharmaceutical Industry

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The BIG DATA revolution

Over past few years there has been a buzz around the word called “BIG DATA”. We will see
this term being used were ever companies are finding huge amount of data coming from
various data sources.

The revolution in social media in past decade has added more interest to this term. With
new and varied sources of data available, companies are looking to integrate all sources into
a big pool of data. But such datasets are also difficult to manage and are complex in nature.
As such over the past few years many data management tools have emerged to handle
these kinds of data and traditional approach like RDBMS no longer holds good in these
changing environment.

Analyzing real
world data
could become a
cornerstone of
value­based
pricing
The V’s in Big Data: methods
According to Gartner, "Big data is high volume, high velocity, and/or high variety
information”. If these data is handled properly with greater processing techniques, it has the
potential to create value for an Organization.

Velocity
The forms of data which are constantly coming to the system and is in most of the cases real
time are grouped under this name. This data serves the purpose of knowing what is happing
now in the real world and can help in making effective decision. Take for example medical
Devices and sensors are generating data constantly and in real time, which if not tracked on
time may become useless. Social media for example generates megabytes of data per
second which gives a sense of velocity in data flow.

Volume
With increase in number of sources, the amount of data collected is huge and is only
growing day by day. The magnitude of data is so immense that they cannot be handled by
traditional methods of data storage, processing and analysis. Take an example of patient
data which runs into millions of past records and are continuously added.

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Variety
This refers to data which has different variety to it; it may be structured, semi‐structured or
completely unstructured. The reason for such variety lies in the type of data which can be a
text or an image or video among others. Source can be social media, blogs, data, Web
searches and may more. In fact sources can be anything, as long as it can be captured and
converted into meaningful data. In life sciences text data i.e. literatures, patient electronic
records, clinical research data etc. constitutes a major portion of the variety of available
data.

Data Veracity
This is one more term added to three V’s recently which deals with the authenticity or
reliability of the data that is being sourced. For example social media may not be an
authentic data as per present regulations but still has meaningful and important data or
insights which cannot be ignored, especially when efficacy or safety of a drug is in question
or if a new drug has to be developed.

The challenges that most companies now face are in getting answers to questions like how
to capture these sources of data? How to mine these data into usable data? What about Big­Data
storage? How to share these data? How to analyze & present? And most importantly, what
opportunity in
insights we can get?
pharmaceutical
Big Data is real time that gives advantage of knowing what is happing now rather than R&D is real and
getting sense of what has already happened. With the evolution of cloud computing, the rewards will
cheaper storage and faster processing speeds, these new trends in technological be great for
advancements are fueling the use of Big Data day by day. Now you see not only organization
but individuals and devices are also producing data in mega volumes, even up to terabytes
companies that
per second. But that is not all, hidden in these datasets are information which can provide succeed
greater insights to organizations generating immense business value.

The focus should be on intent, as this information can help create new business strategies
and help make valuable decisions.

BIG DATA an opportunity for Pharmaceutical Industry?

Pharmaceutical industry is a data intensive business with its verticals generating or using
various types of data. The volume of data is increasing exponentially each day with added
variety of sources. In the health‐care and pharmaceutical industries, raw data is generated
from various internal and external sources for example Research work, R&D process, clinical
trial process, doctors, academicians, medical devices and patients.

Effective usage and analysis of these data will aid pharmaceutical companies in identifying
active ingredient that have desired therapeutic effect and develop them into effective
approved medicines more quickly. Drug development is a costly process which requires lot
of time and expenditure. Use of Big Data gives an opportunity to be used at various stages

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of drug development timeline, by providing greater knowledge, new techniques, timely

decisions whereby reducing the cost and time.

The focus
should be on
intent, as
information
gained from
Big Data can
help make
valuable
decisions
It also provides the potential to increase the involvement among all stakeholders in drug
research and development, commercialization, and supply. Over the time it is seen that
both regulators and insurance payers are looking at Real‐world outcomes. Cost Vs Benefit
model of pricing is becoming all the more important to pharmaceutical companies as
payers, hospitals and even patient start demanding the necessicity of real world evidence
and may become a necessity in future. Pharma co’s can respond to this cost‐benefit
pressure by pursuing Big Data, virtue of which they can mine text literature or track social
media etc. and can show conclusive real‐world outcomes, and there by differentiating
themselves from rest of the competition.

Regulators are looking at the prospect of mining this large pool of data to find any adverse
effect signal or medical error. These data insights can help better patient safety and will
impose more accountability on drug producers or distributors among others.

Focus groups are yielding to the active listening results that come from harvesting millions
of on‐line customer driven interactions, processing and correlating that data via algorithms
which feed computer visualization to clarify what consumers truly want.

This also provides an opportunity for companies to show their concern for the public at
large and Big Data can help improve surveillance. Companies can respond to situation
quickly. It can also help companies to stock or move medicines during unfortunate events
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like natural disaster or predict outbreak of a pandemic saving numerous lives within short
period of time.

As thousands of products and therapies are already in market that are used or prescribed by
many. Validating efficacy, drug safety, comparing product differentiators, designing
marketing strategies or protecting patents etc. will become all the more important. Usage of
Big Data will also help companies to innovate product or process and will help generate new
ideas.

Traditionally life sciences lag behind in use of Big Data. As McKinsey & Company says new
value systems are emerging from which companies can no longer ignore. They are Right
living, Right care, Right provider, Right value, and Right innovation.

The road ahead is indeed challenging, but the Big‐Data opportunity in pharmaceutical world
is real, and the rewards will be great for companies that succeed.

Regulators
Scope for Analytics using Big Data
mulls the use of
Big data analytics (BDA) has emerged one of the important topics of discussions. It has the Big Data to dig
potential of research and analytics providing an opportunity to the organization to think
out Adverse
beyond business intelligence & data mining and include predictive analytics. It represents a
new data management and analytical approach that has the potential of changing the way Event signals
many companies have been doing business. It is designed to derive previously untapped or Medication
intelligence and insights from data to address many new and important questions. Error
Big Data analytics is the process of interrogating large volumes of data, from a variety of
data sources and in different formats, to deliver greater insights into available data. These
insights can help in making real time or quick decisions. Various analytical concepts such as
Text mining, NLP, Artificial intelligence, Statistics and Predictive analytics can be effectively
used to manage, process, analyze data from virtually every possible source. Big data
analytical approaches can be employed to recognize inherent patterns, visualize outcome,
carry out correlations between entities, bring out the sentiment in the text and many more.

Typical stages of process flow from data to final reports are shown below:

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Conclusion

Big Data and Analytics are an important communication tools for effective decision making.
Pharmaceutical companies, as a continuous process are looking for ways to improve upon
the odds of getting a new drug through in the market. They strive to go through drug Big data is
discovery to market as quickly as possible and that too in the most cost effective way. All designed to
the while they have to counter numerous risks and legalities, at the same time have to derive
deliver maximum benefit to patients.
previously
In order to help companies fulfill in their business objectives and to overcome challenges, untapped
Big Data analytics – which includes data integration, data mining, and analytics etc. – will intelligence
help pharmaceutical industry make smarter decisions.

With varied data sources being added constantly, possibilities are enormous. Least to say,
the use of BIG DATA will evolve over time and we will provide greater value to all the
stakeholders.

About MakroCare

Expert Strategic development and commercialization global partner for pharmaceutical,

biotechnology and medical device industries. Our experience, programs and processes bring
a new dimension to development strategy, regulatory/risk planning & management, clinical
research, medical/scientific support and emerging region expansion.

MakroCare has operations and presence in US, UK, EU, and Asia. MakroCare is well
positioned to meet the demands of the expanding product portfolio needs of our life
sciences clients worldwide. We also understand the demands of an increasingly competitive
market.

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References:

• What's Really Different about Big Data Analytics? By Fern Halper

• In 2013, big data will drive big pharma, By Zack King / Co‐founder, Trinity Pharma
Solutions
• 10 Reasons Why Biotech Needs Big Data, July 23, 2012, By Ryan McBride
• Big Data in the Pharmaceuticals Industry, Originating Author: Jeff Kelly
• Four Big Data Trends That Change Everything, Paul Magnone, Contributor,
6/22/2013 www.forbes.com
• Hosted big data demands big performance, SoftLayer
• How big data can revolutionize pharmaceutical R&D, by Jamie Cattell, Sastry
Chilukuri, and Michael Levy
• Pharma's Great Hope: Big Data, McKinsey & Company
• Emerging Technology Series: Big Data Analytics in Health by Canada Health Infoway
Inc. 2013
• Medical Affairs Groups Take on New Roles BY Laura Mortkowitz
• Biomedical literature mining for pharmacokinetics numerical parameter collection
by Zhiping Wang
• Evaluation of linear classifiers on articles containing pharmacokinetic evidence of
Drug‐Drug interactions by A. Kolchinsky, A. Lourenco, L. LI and L. M. Rocha
• Big data revolution in healthcare, accelerating value and innovation by McKinsey &
Company.
• Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition and productivity by McKinsey
& Company.
• Data Mining Tool for Drug Adverse Event Safety, Agency: Department of Health and
Human Services Office: Food and Drug Administration

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