‘BI has become a must-have tool for pharma companies’

George Varghese, Head, Marketing & Alliances/ Pharma & ITES, SAS India Pvt Ltd, has been instrumental in enhancing the company’s brand-building and sales initiatives in the Indian market. Business intelligence has become indispensable for pharma companies faced with the biggest challenge of reducing time to market while reducing costs, says Varghese in an interview with Balakrishnan Nair.

Do you think pharmaceutical companies are shedding their inhibitions towards IT implementation?

Today, pharmaceutical companies, the world over, are under great pressure to maintain market share and profits. The era of blockbuster drugs is coming to an end. Patent expirations are leading to generic invasion of the market. Rising research and development costs are eating away at future profit potentials. So, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, in order to maintain profit levels, must have intelligently driven research and enhanced business management to analyse operational data to manage risk and maximise profits.

What are the pharma-specific solutions offered by SAS?

SAS solutions for the pharmaceutical industry optimise the flow of valuable scientific and operational data within pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies—helping them bring drugs to market faster and more profitably. We offer solutions for every stage including discovery, development, production, sales and marketing and administration. SAS business intelligence allows to integrate data from across your enterprise, deliver fast access to self-service reporting and analysis to all levels of users. Easy-to-use interfaces make it simple for decision makers to get the answers they need, that saves time and helps make better decisions.

SAS Drug Development provides a centralised, integrated system for managing, analysing, reporting and reviewing clinical research information. The solution enables life sciences organisations to make informed business decisions with confidence, to assess the safety and efficacy of research compounds more effectively, to collaborate across trials, phases and therapeutic areas successfully. This ultimately results in getting better products to market faster. For Contract Research Organisations (CROs), we have SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform (EIP) which outlines in detail every aspect of the intelligence creation process—from information integration and consolidation, to analysis for deriving insights, to the in-depth examination of information for understanding the most appropriate actions, to tracking the actions generated for ongoing operational improvements.

Can you cite some examples where SAS solutions have been deployed by pharma companies?

A leading global pharmaceutical company needed to migrate its most valuable asset—clinical data from one old system to a new one. Any disruptions in data processes, any accidents during the transition, any delays even by one day could have cost the company millions of pounds. The company had to ensure that the data would be transferred into the new environment quickly, accurately and in full compliance with the 21 CFR Part 11 regulations. Our solution, based on SAS/Warehouse Administrator and underpinned by the SAS Intelligence Architecture, helped to do that.

Does your solution comply with FDA CFR Part 11?

Yes. SAS9 is faster, more efficient and easier to use than its predecessors, and it can accommodate changing organisational needs without any loss of efficiency. The new platform connects all SAS applications so they work together transparently, and also communicates with other data sources and programs. SAS9 includes the SAS Intelligence Platform, a broad set of integrated software that provides easy-to-use business reporting and unparalleled analytics. It also enhances the most tightly integrated optimisation and predictive analytics capabilities in the industry, making it even easier to tackle complex situation which may not be addressed by traditional business intelligence.

What are the activities of SAS India?

SAS India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SAS Institute Inc, the world leader in business intelligence and analytics. Our global revenue in 2004 stood at US $1.53 billion. SAS has been in India since 1997 and currently has two wholly-owned subsidiaries namely, SAS India and SAS Global Services (SGS). SGS Global Services, headquartered in Pune, is a key resource arm for the global SAS community and focusses on R&D and industry intelligence solutions development. With a strong team of over 200 highly-qualified technology and domain experts, SAS India is headquartered in Mumbai with regional offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and Pune has a strong team of more than 200 technology experts and domain experts. Our clientele includes Novartis, Hindustan Lever Ltd, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithkline, Standard Chartered Bank, GE Capital, Citibank NA, HDFC Bank, Reserve Bank of India amongst others.

What is your market share in business intelligence in India?

SAS India is the leader in business intelligence market in India with a market share of 30 per cent.

E-mail: balakrishnannair@expressindia.com