AI Empowers Healthcare: Industry Leaders and Microsoft Decode Digital Transformation in Pharma
In recent years, digital tools have permeated every aspect of pharmaceutical companies’ operations, from research and development (R&D) and management to sales. Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, all internal communications and external collaborations shifted online, further underscoring the necessity of digital transformation.
On June 8, 2020, Microsoft hosted an exclusive online forum titled “AI Empowering Healthcare: Breaking Through via Digital Transformation,” further fueling the digital transformation of the pharmaceutical industry. The forum featured guests from representative enterprises across all segments of the pharmaceutical digital transformation value chain, including industrial parks, service providers, and pharmaceutical companies.
Guests included representatives from service providers: Keren Priyadarshini, General Manager of Microsoft Asia-Pacific Life Sciences & Healthcare; He Lei, General Manager of Microsoft Greater China Healthcare Division; Wei Qing, CTO of Microsoft China; and Dr. Zhang Yizhao, Vice President of Microsoft Research Asia; a representative from the industrial park: Yuan Tao, Chairman of Zhangjiang Group; a representative from consulting firms: Yu Chao, Partner at one of the Big Four healthcare management consulting firms; representatives from pharmaceutical companies: Dr. Gu Chengming, Chief Medical Officer of Sanofi China; Dr. Zhang Lin, Senior Research Scientist at a leading pharmaceutical company; and Tony Liu, IT Head of BMS; as well as Dr. Lai Lipeng, Co-founder of XtalPi, which closely integrates pharmaceutical R&D with digital technologies.
The attending guests centered their discussions around three major topics: the innovation landscape of AI and digital technologies in the pharmaceutical industry, opportunities and market potential for digital innovation in pharma, and the challenges and solutions associated with the application of digital technologies. From their respective perspectives, they interpreted the current progress and future development directions of digital transformation in the pharmaceutical industry.
The digital transformation of the pharmaceutical industry cannot be achieved without synergy and collaboration within the industry.
Microsoft has consistently played a supportive role in the digital transformation of the pharmaceutical industry. Addressing the current landscape of pharmaceutical digitalization, Keren Priyadarshini, General Manager of Microsoft’s Life Sciences and Healthcare sector for Asia Pacific, introduced Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, the company’s first industry-specific cloud offering. Using the collaboration between Microsoft and Novartis as an example, she briefly outlined how digital tools are applied in innovative drug research and development. By combining Microsoft’s technical expertise with Novartis’s research capabilities, the two companies aim to achieve breakthroughs in two major disease areas: macular degeneration and gene and cell therapies for acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
As one of China’s earliest pioneer zones to enter the healthcare sector, Shanghai Zhangjiang continues to focus on the integration of healthcare and digital technologies. Yuan Tao, Chairman of Zhangjiang Group, cited examples from companies within the park to illustrate the transformations brought by digitalization across various medical fields, including drug development, medical devices, and scientific research publications. For instance, among the medical device companies housed in Zhangjiang’s incubators, some are leveraging probes and robotic systems to enable minimally invasive interventions to be performed through intelligent external operations.
Zhangjiang has also established an Artificial Intelligence Island, where its AI and IoT laboratory, developed in collaboration with Microsoft, is located. The island is home to many other AI companies of various types, all seeking to fully integrate into Zhangjiang’s life sciences ecosystem.
Yu Chao, a partner at one of the four major healthcare management consulting firms, has a slightly different focus from the aforementioned three individuals. From a global perspective, he observes that China’s healthcare industry has gradually taken a leading position in global digital health innovation. China’s digital innovations place significant emphasis on user interaction and practical application. An increasing number of local enterprises, as well as the Chinese affiliates of multinational pharmaceutical companies, are incubating digital innovation models tailored to the local market in China, and then replicating and extending these models to other emerging markets worldwide.
“Every global technological wave has never left the life sciences industry behind,” said Tony Liu, IT Director at BMS. “Just as with electronic health records and cloud technology, the pharmaceutical industry will ultimately embrace the digital wave.”
As one of the largest pharmaceutical companies globally, Sanofi is already implementing a comprehensive, top-down digital transformation. Dr. Gu Chengming, Chief Medical Officer at Sanofi, stated that this digital transformation will primarily drive significant changes in two key areas. One area is pharmaceutical marketing, where face-to-face interactions will increasingly be replaced by digital sales representatives, such as Digital Medical Science Liaisons (DMSLs); services for physicians and patients will also become more targeted through the integration of digital tools. The other area lies in the generation of medical evidence. Traditional clinical trials are often costly; digital approaches can enhance efficiency from data collection to evidence generation, thereby reducing the overall cost of drug development.
Tony Liu also specifically addressed the application of digital technologies in pharmaceutical marketing. He believes that the "hyper-personalization" strategy widely adopted in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry can likewise be applied to drug promotion, with pharmaceutical companies leveraging user personas to conduct more precise marketing campaigns.
As a leading domestic AI-driven drug discovery company, Dr. Li Lipeng, co-founder of XtalPi, noted that the comprehensive digitalization of the healthcare industry can facilitate the accumulation of more data for AI model construction and training. However, Dr. Li also emphasized that although XtalPi’s drug design processes conducted in virtual environments are fully digitalized, they must ultimately be validated in laboratory settings and undergo clinical testing.
From 2019 to 2020, relevant Chinese authorities successively issued multiple guidelines related to real-world studies. Dr. Zhang Lin, Senior Research Scientist at Eli Lilly China, believes that the formulation of these guidelines signifies the nation’s intent to promote real-world studies and provide more evidence for drug development. Although challenges remain in data quality, Dr. Zhang is confident that, through rigorous screening and careful experimental design, real-world studies will ultimately deliver satisfactory outcomes for the pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Zhang Yizhao, Vice President of Microsoft Research Asia, cited three additional examples regarding the application of digital technologies in the pharmaceutical industry. First, digital technologies can help construct knowledge graphs related to pharmaceutical information, enabling professionals to rapidly comprehend the vast volume of medical literature published annually. Second, by quickly identifying target patient populations for drugs, digital technologies allow pharmaceutical companies to adjust their R&D directions in a timely manner. Third, in specific scenarios such as certain neurological disorders, artificial intelligence can replace professionals in administering tests to patients, thereby facilitating continuous disease management.
“As we stand on the threshold of a fully digital society, Microsoft provides foundational platform capabilities and productivity tools.” Wei Qing, CTO of Microsoft China, distilled Microsoft’s empowerment of healthcare digitalization into this single statement.
Keren further highlighted that Microsoft launched the preview version of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare on May 19. As Microsoft’s first industry-specific cloud offering, it aims to enhance collaboration, decision-making, and operational efficiency among healthcare teams. The platform boasts three key advantages: first, trust, as Microsoft commits never to monetize user data; second, world-class scale, underpinned by over $15 billion in cloud infrastructure investment, more than one million physical servers globally, and a vast ecosystem comprising over 68,000 healthcare partners; and third, security and compliance, with Microsoft’s Cyber Defense Operations Center capable of detecting and responding to a wide range of security threats.
He Lei, General Manager of Microsoft’s Healthcare Division for Greater China, added several points here. Microsoft’s platform can help users achieve data interoperability and connectivity; particularly in scenarios with surging data volumes, it facilitates the seamless integration of people, devices, data, and processes. As a technology company, Microsoft possesses deep expertise in natural language processing and deep learning, which can foster the development of more refined applications. Furthermore, Microsoft maintains an open mindset, collaborating with ecosystem partners on its platform to build superior industry solutions.