Amid mounting pressure to innovate, increase speed to market, and optimize supply chains, “digital tech transfer” has become one of the buzziest terms in life sciences.
But “digital tech transfer” isn’t just about upgrading technology. Success depends on streamlining business processes, managing change effectively among people, and integrating technology smoothly across the organization.
Life sciences leaders will face additional challenges as AI advances drug discovery and drives more volume into the process development they need to move quickly.
Tech Transfer in its Current Form Leaves Much to Be Desired
The tech transfer process itself is not new. The need to move data from one team to the next through the phases of drug development has always existed.
However, tech transfer in its current form is inefficient, to say the least. Data is captured using different systems during research, process development, and commercialization. Many of these systems still rely heavily on manual input (if not literal pen and paper). At its best, the tech transfer process is slow and cumbersome. At its worst, it's slow, incomplete, and error-prone. Working across the process enterprise requires a change in thinking.
And the stakes are only getting higher.
With the expansion of therapeutic modalities and a drug development process increasingly fueled by AI, companies are on the precipice of being flooded with new molecules from research. If we do not quickly find a solution for moving process enterprise data from research to process development to commercial manufacturing, we will see massive bottlenecks that will prevent life-saving therapies from coming to market.
As life sciences business leaders face the challenge of processing a high volume of live data at a fast pace, they must be able to efficiently access all available information to make informed decisions about which molecules to prioritize. Tech transfer in its current form makes it almost impossible to reach these conclusions quickly or thoroughly enough.
Beyond Technology: Preparing for Holistic Transformation
Technology is an obvious enough place to start on the journey to digitizing tech transfer. There are technology solutions businesses can adopt to streamline data-sharing, collaboration, and tech transfer between teams, such as using a centralized digitized system instead of disparate systems currently used in research, process development, and commercial manufacturing.
However, it is important not to lose sight of what powers the technology: people and processes. Changing how people work is never easy, and businesses must prepare for the degree of change management required to implement digital tech transfer. Our business processes need to be optimized to engage the newer technology, and our employees need to be trained on the latest processes and technology.
The roadmap to an optimized digital tech transfer will differ from business to business, depending on the company, its unique needs, its people’s appetite for change, and its ability to support that change. The constant is that each company’s approach must be a holistic strategy.
I am interested in hearing about how life sciences leaders are approaching this holistic transformation. Beyond applying innovative technologies, what are you doing to improve your end-to-end process to enable digital tech transfer? How are you supporting your people along the way?
In an industry where the pace of change is only accelerating, getting digital tech transfer right could be the difference between being first or second to market or, more importantly, between life and death for a patient in need.
Does your process look like this? See ZAETHER's paper on digital tech transfer.
