By Seema Verma, SVP and GM, Oracle Life Sciences
The past three years haven’t just challenged us—they’ve also changed us. We’ve experienced accelerated scientific breakthroughs that have ignited possibilities and illuminated the pivotal role of life sciences in healthcare. As we've begun to reshape the boundaries of the industry, we are only scratching the surface. 2024 is poised to be a watershed year, driven by a confluence of factors: cutting-edge cloud technologies; an unprecedented surge in data; the pioneering integration of generative AI; the necessity of cross-disciplinary, multistakeholder collaboration; and the emerging force of patient- and citizen-empowered science.
The late Peter Drucker is believed to have said, “The pharma industry manufactures information in capsule form.” While that attribution can be debated, the essence of its truth cannot. The proliferation of clinical, genome, real-world, population, and other forms of data—ignited by generative AI—will drive untold advances throughout every stage of the drug development lifecycle.
Oracle has been a leader in life sciences for more than 40 years, and with our massive investments in Cerner, research, health data, AI, and Oracle Cloud infrastructure (OCI), we are uniquely positioned to lead a global health transformation. This will take a reimagining of the industry, unprecedented technologies, data advancements, hands-on expertise, and a relentless focus on the patient. It is the most important undertaking in Oracle’s history.
A transformational movement for our generation
This transformation is close to my heart, and it’s the reason I came to Oracle. My commitment to placing patients at the center of healthcare, as demonstrated during my leadership at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), continues at Oracle. CMS programs such as “Patients over Paperwork” helped to cut the red tape and allow practitioners to focus on care. Meantime, a groundbreaking model helped lower insulin out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries, and new regulations paved the way for value-based payment for prescription drugs and requirements for APIs and FHIR standards. These types of patient-centric initiatives must extend to life sciences, where patients should be viewed as both the beneficiaries of scientific information and creators of it.
A digital and cultural transformation of this magnitude will require a multistakeholder, cross-disciplinary approach that reimagines how we work. Enterprise cloud providers such as Oracle play a critical co-innovation partnership role. To meet this challenge, Oracle has evolved into a strategically aligned organization where resources are unified – not siloed – to enhance collaboration, efficiency, and innovation.
Data-empowered, patient-focused, open ecosystem
With Oracle’s acquisition of Cerner came opportunities to leverage medical research data, and health care solutions encompassing EHR, real-world data, and real-world evidence, supported by a team of scientific consultants. Oracle has solutions spanning all phases of product development, from early planning and clinical trial implementation, to market access and brand launch, to post-launch performance and safety surveillance. This investment will help accelerate the development and delivery of new therapeutics, and it creates a stronger bridge between clinical research and clinical care.
At Oracle Life Sciences, we are building agile, tech-enabled solutions based on open standards to streamline the product development cycle—from drug discovery through commercialization. By aligning our Oracle Health business with OCI, we can offer unique datasets, vast amount of cloud-based computational power, and AI capabilities. But technology is only part of the answer. Navigating this fragmented and highly regulated landscape requires expert partners and consultative services. This unique blend of technology, data, and expertise will boost efficiency, enable collaboration, accelerate insights, and ultimately help to improve healthcare worldwide.
- Unified, Intelligent Data: Generative AI can quickly extract meaning across many datasets to advance science. We have a deidentified proprietary real-world dataset with more than 100 million patient records and growing, one of the world's largest EHR providers, one of the largest global patient-derived PRO databases, and a team of consultative experts. These resources offer the ability to engage potential patients from participating health care providers for clinical trial participation, as well as insights and real-world evidence, backed by a steadfast commitment to data privacy, security, and standards.
- Reimagined Clinical Systems: With new engineering resources, we are evolving our clinical trials, safety, and pharmacovigilance products into dynamic business intelligence systems. Leveraging AI and real-world data, we can enhance trial feasibility and help accelerate patient recruitment, and the ability to engage eligible patients to help accelerate randomized controlled trials. Down the road, AI can also help simplify lab processes and serve as a foundation of intelligent labs that accelerate discovery and innovation.
- Vast Computational Power, AI Expertise: OCI, our next-generation cloud designed to run any application faster and more securely than ever before, offers customers unparalleled computational resources for in silico drug discovery and molecular design. With OCI and key partners such as NVIDIA and Cohere, Oracle is also unlocking the vast potential of AI and computational chemistry. Biotech’s like QuantumBio are already using OCI for in silico identification of drug targets to increase speed and efficiency and reduce costs.
- Research Expertise and Consultation: Oracle Life Sciences distinguishes itself from other hyperscalers through its extensive clinical expertise, research and consultative services across commercial, real-world, and regulatory research. With experience in more than 250,000 clinical trials across 40+ countries and 2,000-plus clinical publications, we offer years of proven market insights, evidence to support reimbursement, and strategies for launch and brand success, accelerating the development of life-changing therapeutics.
- Open and Connected: We believe a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach is a faster, more efficient way to deliver evidence-based, scientific outcomes and drive business value. We have an API-driven ecosystem strategy to offer our customers choice, facilitate better collaboration, speed time to insights, and improve patient outcomes more quickly.
Better together
Leveraging Oracle's holistic advantages, and in collaboration with partners and customers, we aim for transformative, collective global impact. With our patient-centered approach and our expertise in healthcare, clinical research, and cloud technology, we can empower customers to make informed decisions, innovate, and enhance health outcomes.
2024 will be pivotal for the life sciences' industry’s digital transformation. Embodying the motto “better together,” we invite you to join us in leading this transformation for our generation and the next.