The ninth largest pharmaceutical company in the world, Pfizer generated over $80 billion in revenue in 2021 alone. However, in this day and age, not even “big pharma” companies can afford to rest on their laurels.

Not only is the company, with five of its blockbuster drugs going generic in the next few years, standing at a $18 billion patent cliff, a slew of other issues such as the supply chain disruptions, global labor strikes and the waning COVID-19 vaccination rates threaten to derail its profitability.

The cure to these business ills? Digital transformation.

As Pfizer’s Senior Vice President of Advanced Analytics and Data Platforms & Learning and Development, Bill Leister, explained in a 2021 interview, “Our CEO Albert Bourla defined Pfizer’s mission as driving breakthroughs that change patients’ life. As part of that mission, we’re undertaking a business transformation to become a leaner, more science-driven and patient-focused organization. Digital plays a part in almost every aspect of how we’re going to achieve that transformation. But ultimately, our objective and how we’ll measure that success, is our ability to deliver 25 drug breakthroughs by 2025.”

In addition to make substantial investments in R&D, Pfizer is also looking to increase its already sizeable investments (an estimated $760 million in 2021) in digital technologies such as intelligent automation, artificial intelligence and big data. The goal is to not only reduce overhead costs and boost profits, but also ensure drugs get to the right patients as safely as well as quickly as possible and become an even more science-driven company. 

To support the company’s efforts to “win the digital race in pharma,” Pfizer launched it’s Center for Digital Innovation (CDI) back in 2019. Based in Greece, the center serves as a hub for digital transformation across both the back and front offices. As explained on the website, “Colleagues in the Center are working on innovative digital projects, in collaboration with colleagues across the world, as part of the corporate digital strategy. This includes digitizing drug discovery and development, enhancing health outcomes and patient experience, digital tools for making our work faster and easier, AI and advanced analytics.”

Pfizer’s Data-Driven Finance Transformation

By 2018, Pfizer had already modernized its finance department, leveraging RPA and intelligent automation to streamline operations. The next step? Democratizing finance data and cultivating data-centric mindsets within the organizations

In partnership with MicroStrategy, the company, first, automated its financial reporting systems and implemented self-service analytics. As a results, users could customize their dashboards based on their level, location and unique needs. For example, a middle manager might need a highly detailed report on individual team performance while a c-level executive might be more interested in viewing more macro figures. 

One especially interesting feature of this technology is that it allowed Pfizer’s data science leaders to track adoption and develop a more cutomer-centric approach to finance data delivery. Steven Dawson, Senior Director of Digital Finance, Pfizer explained in a recent press release outlining the project, “it is a very good idea to identify metrics that would help you track adoption or non-adoption, and help shine a light on who is using the dashboards, what particular reports or worksheets they are using, maybe even what types of queries they are running, so we can subsequently improve the application but also ask questions."

Pfizer Supply Chain Transformation

In partnership with Controlant, Pfizer embarked on one of its most important missions in its 100+ year history, distributing the COVID-19 vaccine.

Together the companies developed a new shipping container equipped with a temperature monitoring device capable of transmitting large amounts of data in real-time. This enabled Pfizer’s team to track shipments in real time and mitigate any issues (such as temperature fluctuations) as they occurred. As a result, 99.9% of vaccines were successfully delivered to their destinations sans excursions. 

Evolving from big pharma to biotech

Flush with cash from the COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer’s transformation into a biotech company is only just beginning. Earlier this year, the company acquired ResApp, a smartphone application that uses AI to diagnose COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses based on the sound of a person's cough. 

In 2022 alone, the company has also partnered with Sidekick Health to launch a new digital therapeutics solution for patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) and DoctorOnCall to launch a digital therapeutics platform that focuses on smoking cessation, vaccination, and heart health. 

However, these are only the first move in a long-term, multi-year business strategy. Stay tuned for more in months and years to come. .