Why Collaboration & Data Management Is Must For Biotech Industry

Many departments in biopharma companies still work in silos. Most companies are still alien to the collaboration and data management concept. However, with changing the timing, it has become crucial that even these companies adapt to changes. Abhay Kini, director of life sciences at Egnyte, shares a few steps to how biopharma companies use collaboration and data management or larger success. 

Traditionally, the biotech industry hasn’t leaned into collaboration across organizations, digital transformation and leveraging technology solutions for process simplification and streamlining. Changes in recent times, however, have led the industry to evolve. 

In the 1980s and 1990s, pharmaceutical and biotech companies kept research and commercialization completely in-house, siloing themselves from wider innovations sourced from collaboration or technological advancements. In that time period, many biotech companies operated as fully integrated pharma companies, or FIPCOs, whereby one company would carry out all research and data storage and management independently and alone. 

The emergence of the PC and semiconductor industries in the late 1990s led to a shift where it became apparent that no one company was totally responsible for a product—that, instead, they were often a result of collaboration between different organizations. Perhaps consequently, the biopharma industry began to initiate the process of outsourcing to facilitate greater innovation and foster cost efficiencies. This led to the establishment of a fully integrated pharmaceutical network, or FIPNET, where companies outsourced large parts of their work to partners and contract research organizations (CROs).

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The State of Collaboration in Biotech Today 

In more recent times, we’ve started to see the emergence of entirely virtual biotechnology/pharmaceutical companies called virtual integrated pharmaceutical companies, or VIPCOs. In the case of VIPCOs, all the research is distributed across partners, which fosters greater efficiency in developing drug candidates by moving them more quickly through approvals to get them into the hands of patients. While the VIPCO model is still in the very early stages of development and maturing, it will likely gain popularity due to the associated cost savings and sped-up processes. 

With the changes brought in from the 1980s to the present day, it’s evident that the biotech sector is in a state of flux and evolution. Old ways of doing business are stifling collaboration and, as a result, impeding innovation in the sector. Extensive collaboration, whether on a large scale or in smaller ventures, creates opportunities for knowledge capture from partners to spur more innovation, greatly reduces duplicate research and development efforts and allows for the development of a common vision. However, with the arrival of VIPCOs and greater flexibility from organizations in regard to working with partners, it seems that change is on the way.

Smarter Collaboration Requires Smarter Security 

It is evident that with greater collaboration comes more data flow between more sources and organizations. Areas such as data storage, data management, and data access—as well as the security of it—all become of greater importance when collaboration comes into play. To empower the level of collaboration that will truly have the positive impact discussed above, digital transformation is key. 

Firstly, when we discuss digital transformation as it relates to biotech collaboration, it is imperative to consider robust data management. The benefits of data management are enhanced compliance and communication with regulatory agencies, greatly reduced human error, and safe data sharing between organizations. This type of data management will typically reduce or eliminate the reliance on paper and empower workforces to work and collaborate remotely and globally. 

Second, enhancing collaboration through digital transformation necessitates tighter security controls to guarantee the secure transfer of data for internal or external collaboration between biotechnology companies. Such security measures are often facilitated by cloud-based data management solutions, which allow for compliance in data sharing without increased overhead, greater visibility and control over data, whether company-wide or team specific, boosted productivity coupled with secure and efficient large file collaboration, and more.

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Remember to Simplify while Fostering Collaboration

Despite the seemingly complex nature of collaboration and digital transformation, the tools deployed for end-users must be as simple and as easy to use as possible. Your data-sharing technology solution will only be as effective as end-user adoption rates—therefore, simplicity and ease of use will be paramount. Ease-of-use drives collaboration across companies as it increases the likelihood of collaboration tools being used. 

For the biotech and pharmaceutical industries to continue their march into the future, higher collaboration rates empowered by robust, simple, and secure cloud-based technology solutions are a must. Whether it’s a collaboration between teams, various companies or sectors, technology that enables biotech and pharma professionals to partner on R&D or other initiatives will power the coming innovations in the sectors – for the good of all. 

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