Life Sciences Analytics for Driving Innovation in the Age of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating adoption of new technology and advanced analytics in an effort to mitigate delays in clinical research. Augmented clinical trials can help keep research on track. Machine learning and AI, supported by the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), enable this innovation in trial design by keeping researchers connected to patients and their data.

• Virtual and hybrid trial designs are ideal for improving patient enrollment and retention by reducing or eliminating the need for site visits.
• Approaches like direct-to-patient drug supply, remote patient monitoring, telemedicine, modeling for missing data, and more integrated and personalized patient communication can keep clinical research moving forward despite slowdowns to traditional site-based research.
• Augmented trial methodologies lead to increased trial compliance, enable real-time decisions for safety and help prevent risks of supply shortages – all helping minimize disruptions to study progress.

Real-world data (RWD) can be used for feasibility analysis and hypothesis testing or development of synthetic control arms in lieu of recruiting patients who may or may not be able to fulfill protocol requirements. This also allows for an easier transition to pragmatic clinical trials and the possibility of shortening the approval process and time to market, as well as reducing the costs of clinical trial execution.

During the pandemic, pharmaceutical manufacturers have been facing rapidly evolving circumstances that have an impact on their ability to effectively produce and deliver therapeutic products to market. Constraints in materials supply, worker safety concerns and uncertain demand make it difficult for manufacturers to meet demand. Forecasting and optimization analytics can help overcome both planning and production scheduling challenges by assisting in planning supply, allocation and production line optimization. The current situation may result in unusual disruptions or changes in suppliers or manufacturing facilities.

SAS can help you with strong production process monitoring and end-to-end quality assessments of raw, intermediate and final products – in addition to containers, packaging and labels – resulting in:

• Higher productivity.
• Less waste.
• Improved margins.
• Reduced risk due to product issues.

Whether on the front lines of the pandemic or working remotely, health care providers are increasingly turning to digital channels to get information and stay engaged. This presents a potential opportunity for your sales teams to connect with prescribers in new ways. As an additional benefit, digital channels inherently generate data, which can be analyzed to rapidly and continuously monitor and optimize pharmaceutical salesforce activities to further enhance your relationships with providers of care.

COVID-19 is affecting demand for pharmaceutical products. Social distancing and lockdowns have changed the way consumers shop for over-the-counter (OTC) medicines. Meanwhile, clinical trial delays and the ramp-up of pandemic-related research has led to variable demand for clinical research supplies.

Demand for raw materials has also changed as manufacturers look to shift supply chains to different regions to mitigate the pandemic's impact. Demand sensing, forecasting and planning are critical to successfully navigating the many variables at play.

The COVID-19 pandemic is confronting governments, health care systems, life sciences organizations and other sectors with unprecedented challenges in virus identification, treatment and containment. To meet this challenge, organizations require data-driven insights that can predict the highest demands on health care systems and adjacent industries. SAS analytics solutions can help by enabling:

• Simplified and automated public health reporting.
• Increased transparency into spread and trends.
• Epidemiological models that help project dates for peak infection and hospital demand.