ISG to Publish Study on Digital Service Providers for Life Sciences Industry

Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm, has launched a research study examining digital service providers focused on the life sciences industry at a time when the industry is under growing pressure to digitize and streamline operations.

The study results will be published in a comprehensive ISG Provider Lens report, called Life Sciences Digital Services, scheduled to be released in January. The report will cover a range of digital services available to life sciences companies.

Enterprise buyers will be able to use information from the report to evaluate their current vendor relationships, potential new engagements and available offerings, while ISG advisors use the information to recommend providers to the firm’s buy-side clients.

The new report will cover service providers looking to help life sciences companies with increasing competitive and regulatory pressures, said Jenn Stein, partner and global leader, ISG Life Sciences.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and public demand for more effective outcomes are mandating the acceleration of actions needed to better meet care lifecycle requirements and build patient-centric business models,” she said. “In addition, life sciences companies are being compelled to comply with new regulations, deal with new competition, integrate waves of competitive mergers and acquisitions, and adapt to the needs of an aging population.”

ISG has distributed surveys to more than 60 technology and service providers serving the life sciences industry. Working in collaboration with ISG’s global advisors, the research team will produce five quadrants representing the services and products the typical enterprise client is buying in the life sciences space, based on ISG’s experience working with its clients. The five quadrants are:

• Clinical Development Digital Transformation Services, assessing how service providers help biopharma companies accelerate the process of developing and bringing products to market. Service providers support compliance checks and patient safety reporting while offering complex regulatory intelligence. They also improve the clinical design process with collaboration platforms.

• Patient Engagement Digital Transformation Services, analyzing service providers that focus on life sciences customer services using supporting processes and platforms. Electronic enrollment and patient monitoring are done via connected sensors at home or in care facilities. In addition to enhanced enrollment and participation in clinical trials, improved patient engagement helps ensure compliance with therapies and reduces drop-out rates. Digital medicine is also an emerging area, with broader use of smart pills and wearables.

• Pharmacovigilance and Regulatory Affairs Digital Transformation Services, covering service providers that focus on life sciences services that support patient safety monitoring and reporting, compliance with global and local regulatory requirements, and reporting via processes and platforms. While there is already a successful history using AI to support some aspects of these activities, the growing confidence in natural language processing and machine learning among life sciences enterprises has opened additional opportunities for innovation and efficiency.

• Manufacturing Supply Chain Digital Transformation Services, assessing service providers that work with their life sciences customers to improve the manufacturing supply chain. Manufacturers use sensors for monitoring equipment health and predicting maintenance needs to reduce downtime. Appropriate analytics and AI are required to move inventory quickly to the desired location. Blockchain helps maintain the chain of custody that is important in life sciences.

• MedTech Digital Transformation Services, focused on service providers that support MedTech companies in their journeys to use digitization for product development, engineering, production and logistics. Major functional areas that are considered in this quadrant are product lifecycle management, engineering services, logistics and distribution, and maintenance and repair.

The report will cover the global life sciences market, examining in depth the products and services available in the U.S. and Europe. ISG analysts Rainer Suletzki and Frances Grote will serve as lead authors of the report.