For years, popular wisdom held that agile innovation and design thinking were uniquely challenging for life sciences companies. Indeed, healthcare organizations seemed to be watching from the sidelines as internet start-ups, as well as giants in IT, manufacturing and retail, leapt ahead in agile innovation strategies under rallying cries like “fail fast,” “build-measure-learn” and “minimally viable product.”
Yet healthcare organizations could quickly turn from laggards into leaders as pressure increases to become more nimble, respond to threats from outside disruptors and innovate more quickly on behalf of patients. The 21st Century Cures Act set the stage, providing expedited approval pathways for breakthrough medicines and encouraging the use of real world evidence to ensure that effective medicines are available to more patients. Amidst news about breakthroughs in gene therapies and cancer immune therapies, patients have put pressure on researchers to speed up the research cycle. Biopharma investors and other commercial stakeholders are on precisely the same page.
In some cases, it’s the IT departments within healthcare organizations that are leading the charge —which makes sense, as many of the agile practices taught in business schools today originated in the computer and software industries. These well-documented methodologies come with national certification bodies and their own nomenclature of “scrums” and “sprints.” Other corporate functions in biopharma, including commercial units, fit with looser definitions of agility and project management more properly described as design thinking.
At Syneos Health, a fully integrated biopharmaceutical solutions company where clinical and commercial teams work seamlessly together, some agile initiatives use formal methodologies, while other teams customize the agile playbook to achieve patient-driven priorities that IT and retail companies have yet to encounter. In every instance, the motivation couldn’t be simpler: Patients need better medicines, and innovations that could answer their prayers are emerging with breathtaking speed. Going forward, pharma’s adoption of artificial intelligence will accelerate the pace even more. If traditional biopharma companies can’t gain agility as they translate new science into effective treatments and valuable support, future generations won’t easily forgive our failures.
In this report, executives spearheading agile programs at Syneos Health describe aspects of philosophy, culture, logistics and project management that are most likely to hit the mark in healthcare’s uniquely challenging context.
