By: Maria Williams
The pharmaceutical industry is rapidly evolving, driven by new technologies, changing regulations, rising costs, and a growing patient population. Seema Verma, a former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and current executive vice president and general manager at Oracle Health, has a unique vantage point into the key forces shaping the future of pharmaceuticals.
In a recent article in PharmaVoice, Verma highlighted critical trends set to disrupt the industry in 2024 and beyond. From real-world data to decentralized trials, her insights showcase how innovation can make treatments more targeted, trials more accessible, and drug development more efficient.
“The last few years have been marked by a rapid period of technological adoption in the life sciences industry, mostly driven by the pandemic. Now as the industry moves ahead, it is committed to finding new ways to apply technology to improve clinical research, expand trials to wider, more diverse population sets, and improve drug safety,” wrote Verma.
The Unsustainable Trajectory of Health Care Costs
Verma paints a concerning picture when outlining current health care spending trends. As quoted at the Asembia 2023 conference, “The math problem around Medicare does not work over the long term. People do not appreciate how dire the situation is.”
Verma attributes the precarious economics to America’s immense aging population. As more baby boomers qualify for Medicare, Verma predicts coverage costs could skyrocket, noting bluntly at Asembia that there could simply be more and more of the aging population to care for.
The growing bill for prescription drugs is especially worrying, Verma explained in an October 2022 talk hosted by the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative. She revealed that prescription medication spending has climbed from 17% of Medicare’s budget in 2012 to 23% in 2016.
“Lowering the cost of prescription drugs isn’t just something we would like to do,” Verma pressed in the discussion. “It is something that we must do in order to ensure the sustainability of our health care system.”
Real-World Data = More Personalized Medicine
With health care budgets already strained, the industry must pursue more targeted, cost-effective treatments. Verma sees promise in leveraging real-world data from sources like electronic health records and wearables.
“Clinical research, combined with real-world data (RWD), provides deeper insights into the natural history of diseases and the performance of health care interventions in real-world settings,” Verma wrote in PharmaVoice. “These real-world data sources, which can include patient-reported outcomes, insurance claims data, data from wearable devices, and detailed patient histories found in electronic health records (EHRs), can provide a more refined understanding of treatments in real-life settings.”
Aggregating these diverse datasets will allow researchers to better understand personalized patient needs, Verma explained. With precise, real-world insights, she predicts treatments can become more responsive to individuals’ unique circumstances and backgrounds. RWD could also help efficiently recruit diverse patient populations during clinical trials.
Ultimately, Verma foresees RWD precipitating “a significant shift toward embracing the patient’s voice and ensuring that every stage in drug development is informed by the nuanced, real-life experiences of diverse patient populations.”
Technology Will Accelerate and Enhance Research
According to Verma, the growing abundance of patient data necessitates equal innovation in data infrastructure. Here, she highlights the immense potential of cloud computing, automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
Verma wrote in PharmaVoice, “The industry is getting to a point where technology, cloud computing, data integration, and clinical care research can all be part of the same spectrum. Cloud technology is helping to bridge the gap toward greater access to connected, robust data sets. As AI enables quicker analysis and faster insights, clinical research will become more accessible, cheaper, and more accurate because the information will be based on data that are more complete.”
Seema Verma’s Vision for the Future
In the coming years, Seema Verma sees “a more concerted effort among trial providers to make it easier to connect patients and providers with clinical trials.” She believes data sharing will be a positive move forward for both doctors and patients and that shared knowledge can accelerate insights, discoveries, and therapies.
And, of course, she addressed the impact the artificial intelligence boom will have on the health care sector.
“There is no question that cloud, automation, and AI will continue to reshape the life sciences industry and our approach to clinical trials moving forward,” wrote Seema Verma. “The impact these technologies have on transforming all facets of our industry will be felt across all aspects of clinical research from study-startup to personalized care to drug safety. The companies that leverage these and other emerging technologies the most effectively are the ones who will be able to bring viable, safe treatments to market faster.”
Published by: Khy Talara
