maj 30, 2025
For years, the pharmaceutical industry has been discussing and emphasizing the importance of digital transformation and modernization. But digital transformation in pharma still lags even other highly regulated industries like insurance and banking.
Pharma today resembles Blockbuster in a world that has moved on to Netflix. In most industries, we see content delivered instantly, personalized to individual tastes and driven by data. By contrast, pharma still lives in an age of late fees, relying on outdated models and expecting customers to navigate static offerings without meaningful support or feedback.
Recently, I attended NEXT Pharma in Dubrovnik, and from the start it was clear that this metaphor is very relevant for pharma. The engagement models with healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients remain impersonal, campaigns lack omnichannel cohesion, and feedback loops to guide optimization are almost non-existent.
Pharma's digital transformation priorities: Experience, collaboration and strategic technology
We learned from Alyssa Fenoglio, Global Head of Digital at Teva, that pharma ranks lowest across 25 industries in consumer sentiment, suggesting a need for a people-first transformation.
In her talk and throughout other presentations, a theme became clear: the industry is still using antiquated engagement models.
In a system that focuses on acquisition, engagement models like the classic sales funnel can work. This model is familiar, trusted, and has established and measurable KPIs, making tracking easy.
But it does not lend itself to retention, expansion, long-term relationships or advocacy. All of these could unlock a tremendous amount of value, but they’re rarely part of the industry’s commercial models today. The kind of relevance and retention that Netflix achieves through customer-centric design remains largely aspirational in pharma.
Breaking down silos and integrating single-function teams
We heard from Loucif Ouyahia, Global Head of Digital Healthcare at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, that “cross-functional collaboration is still a challenge.”
Unsurprisingly, digitally minded professionals or those with tech backgrounds who moved to life sciences shared their frustrations and urged team leaders to organize their teams as cross-functional squads.
Netflix has operated for many years based on a loosely coupled environment, where people across teams and geographies actively share their expertise, and individuals constantly work with different ensembles of cross-functional teams.
Tech’s role in a pharmaceutical organization
Julien Pahud, International Patient Success and Innovation Senior Director at Eli Lilly and Company, argued that technology should serve the organization, not the other way around.
This pragmatic view stands in stark contrast to the current obsession with generative AI, hyper-personalization and agentic automation. As Pahud noted, these tools offer little value without foundational alignment, which includes a clear understanding of end-user needs and wants, integrated systems and cohesive teams.
Full value creation is not possible in the current landscape of functional fiefdoms, characterized by each team with its own tools, systems and data.
Netflix took more than a decade from its founding to launch its streaming service at scale and its mobile app, both of which occurred in 2010, around the time the iPhone 4 was launched. Timing, infrastructure and user readiness were critical to ensuring adoption.
Laying the groundwork for digital transformation in pharma
At Valtech, we work with pharma teams across Europe to build the foundations that enable them to extract the most from the tools they already have.
We strengthen data maturity, redesign workflows for agility and operational efficiency, and align teams to achieve strategic outcomes. Our multidisciplinary squads focus on what matters most: outcomes over outputs.
We don’t adopt new tools for the sake of trendiness. Instead, we help clients operationalize technology with intent, build capabilities and scale what works to drive lasting value.
Interested in working with a partner that embodies cross-functional collaboration and delivers with speed?
Looking to move from pilot projects to enterprise-wide transformation with a team of strategists, designers, engineers, data scientists and product managers working together? Reach out — we’d love to explore what’s working for you and what’s next.
