With supply chains growing ever more complex and a regulatory environment that can change on a dime, pharmaceutical manufacturers are under more pressure than ever. To meet the growing demands, many are turning to data analytics from companies like ValueCentric. ValueCentric’s core product, an on-demand data management and analytics platform called ValueTrak, helps pharmaceutical manufacturers makes sense of critical data to improve supply chain operations and drive sales, according to ValueCentric founder and CEO Dave Janca. Janca recently sat down with me to discuss the increasingly important role of data analytics in pharmaceutical manufacturing, how ValueCentric is evolving its platform to meet the new demands, and shares his insights on future trends he sees emerging in the pharmaceutical industry.
JAZD Life Sciences: What type of data analytics are pharmaceutical manufacturers most interested in?
Dave Janca: Much of the focus is around visibility into the supply chain. That includes understanding where their inventories are, how they’re being replenished, how many days of product are on hand and where that resides in the channel. Also, pharmaceutical manufacturers are interested in the flow-through of their inventory, like sales that occur through wholesale distributors that handle the bulk of their product distribution and then go out into the market to the outlets including stores, hospitals and clinics. So the visibility or complete transparency around the manufacturers’ products and what’s residing in the channel is really very important to them.
JLS: What are the biggest data analytics challenges for pharmaceutical manufacturers?
Janca: The first challenge is accessing and managing the data. Some companies will work with just a handful of large distributors, wholesaler-type partners, but many others will use 30, 40, 50 different distributors and wholesalers. So the effort of picking up the data, accessing it, processing it, normalizing it, and mapping it for consistent reporting has turned out to be a pretty big challenge. With ValueCentric one of the things we feel is a core competencies is our ability to predictably go out do this for our clients and have the data ready for reporting basically in real-time, or next day at the latest. So we’ve really standardized a lot of our internal processes in accessing, processing and preparing the data for analytical use. We have it very well streamlined and predictable, so we remove a big burden for clients. Now manufacturers can really focus on getting value from the data and not on the back-end access, mapping and maintenance around the data.
JLS: Tell me about the ValueTrak, ValueCentric’s core data analytics platform?
Janca: The platform is delivered to clients using the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. We pick up data every day, all day from the different providers, over 120 in all. We bring the data into the ValueTrak platform, process the data, map it accordingly for reporting, and then we provide a module-based analytics approach to the different components of ValueTrak that add value to our customers. For instance, if they’re interested in monitoring inventories and high-level sales out of distributor, they would use our module designed to bring in 852 EDI data and process that. If they wanted to see detailed sales from the wholesalers and distributors into the outlets, the stores and hospitals, then that’s 867-type data that you would access through a specific module. These are EDI transaction sets that we’ve tied into ValueTrak modules to address a manufacturers business needs.
We have also taken a comprehensive look at all of the transactions that occur between a manufacturer and the distributor or wholesale partner with whom they work. The transactions that they share on a regular basis have been the focus of various other modules that we’ve developed. For example, we have a module for order management that allows the manufacturer to do a preprocessing of a customer’s order to check whether it falls within certain tolerances and whether the product is really needed by that customer based on the analytics in ValueTrak. So it analyzes orders down to the SKU level for each location for a multi-location distributor and decides whether that order is appropriate in size, how it compares to historical orders, the impact it will have on current inventory levels. It’s very detailed and has a lot of analysis and forecasting built into it.
We also have modules that address class-of-trade designations, returns (reverse logistics), product safety, sales & market planning, specialty pharmacy, prescription reporting, REMS and chargeback analysis.
JLS: A big trend in data analytics these days is integrating third-party market data with internal data for even deeper analysis. Does ValueTrak incorporate third-party data?
Janca: We have a module called Sales & Market Planning which really is a one-of-a-kind module that integrates all of the data that we’re picking up for the manufacturers, but also integrates other third-party data. So whether it be their own internal sales information, sales forecasts, IMS Health data, Wolters Kluwer data, or a variety of other data streams, we’ll normalize that data and show it to them on one screen so they can easily reconcile what is flowing into the channel and how that compares to internal forecasts and prescription activity. We believe it’s of very high value and we’re in the process of marketing the module right now, it’s relatively new and its getting good acceptance in our customer base.
JLS: What about regulatory compliance, which I know is a huge concern in the pharmaceutical world?
Janca:We are developing a regulatory component of our platform that deals with REMS, which stands for Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies. REMS is largely FDA-driven and we’re really in a lead position to deliver important regulatory monitoring and reporting capabilities. REMS programs are designed to put a higher degree of focus on monitoring of high-risk products such as controlled substances that could improperly prescribed, improperly dispensed taken inappropriately or abused. The FDA is really looking to impress upon manufacturers, distributors, physicians, pharmacies, and the patients that these products need to be carefully managed and monitored. Along those lines, we’re working with partners to deliver a REMS solution to the market. In fact, we have our first contract in place and we expect to have FDA approval for our solution in very shortly. It’s a highly fertile area for future development for our platform.
JLS: Why is the platform delivered on-demand, also known as SaaS?
Janca: We wanted to create a platform that our customers could implement quickly and the SaaS model allows us to do that. Our installation, from contract signing to data flowing and value being delivered to customers, tends to be 60 to 90 days. We are working on making that 60 days or less. If you deliver software as an enterprise solution or in-house, you can’t get that type of speed-to-value that we deliver. As mentioned, we handle all the data management, which is another benefit of the on-demand ValueTrak platform. The onus is on us to get the data. We have the software running on our servers, we integrate the data, and get customers up and running with very little burden on their part. With an enterprise software model we would have to install the product on their platform, work with customers to integrate the data they they’re picking up, and I’m sure we’d have to tweak it to a large degree and customize it.
In-house platforms are also very difficult to support because each in-house application tends to have some nuances associated with that company. ValueTrak, by comparison, has just one body of code. Every build is standardized and we essentially turn things off and on if the customer doesn’t want a certain piece of the application. We also handle all the releases and upgrades. All users have to do is sign-on through a secure sign-on to get the benefit of our service. So the ValueTrak platform is designed for very quick start-up, easy implementation and support, and it removes all the installation, customization and management burdens from the customer.
JLS: Is the ValueTrak platform better suited for large pharmaceutical manufacturers, or can smaller, specialized firms also benefit from the platform?
Janca: We’ve designed the platform so that is just as effective for a small, emerging pharmaceutical company as it is for the biggest, most well-established companies on the market. And I think our customer base bears that out. For instance, we work with Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, and Merck — big pharma clearly. But we also are a good fit for the midmarket and we have many small, emerging companies that have just launched their first product. They include companies such as Lupin, ProStrakan, X-Gen, and we just signed Leo Pharma. These companies may not be household names but they’re coming forward with their first product or handful of products, they want a world class solution, and we’re somebody that can adapt our solution accordingly and be a good partner today and into the future. We can price the platform appropriately based on the modules a customer desires, fewer products or more products, fewer trading partners or more trading partners, and really deliver value. Our value proposition holds for companies of all sizes. And that’s been very important as we’ve scaled to 100 customers.
JLS: Are there any emerging trends taking shape in the world of pharmaceutical data analytics and how are you addressing them?
Janca: I think what we see happening and what we’re trying to address is the constant and growing thirst for more data. Historically script data was the main driver in the market. It was used by the brand teams and commercial analytics staff to assess the market. With ValueTrak and our entry into handling trade data, we’ve given them another view of the world, like products shipped into the channel and then into the stores and hospitals to be dispensed. So there’s an increasing need to marry up pharmacy data or prescription data with the trade data and with other data that might be available. So one of the trends is the efficient integration of all these data streams to see a holistic view of the market, and we think our platform is well positioned to help accomplish that in near real-time and deliver the actionable business value companies’ desire.
We also see a trend where companies are interested in more actual data, meaning they want to understand at a specific retail pharmacy what’s occurring with their products. Historically, pharmaceutical manufacturers have had to rely on data from IMS and others to project or estimate that type of analysis at a high level of aggregation. But now, with ValueTrak, we give our customers visibility into actual data and what their products are doing at a store, how they’re being managed, how the market is impacting them — it’s a whole new world for them. If a manufacturer can get data from a chain that shows them exactly what’s going on within that chain store, it’s the first time that they’re seeing it at that level of granularity. And it allows them to find ways to improve their performance and work in partnership with their customers to drive more sales, better business performance and patient care.
JLS: Ultimately, why should a pharmaceutical manufacturer looking to improve its data analytics capabilities pick ValueCentric over one of your competitors?
Janca: I think one of the key questions people ask is, “Is my data secure?” ValueCentric is SAS 70 compliant company, which means we have very rigorous controls in place that allow us to meet Sarbanes-Oxley reporting requirements around security, privacy, redundancy and so forth. So that’s real important. Everybody wants to make sure that they’re data is accurate, it’s consistent, it’s not being compromised, and they can count on it day in, day out. So we certainly provide that capability.
When you look at other things such as ease-of-access anywhere, anytime and ease of integration, I think we score pretty well there also thanks in part to the SaaS model. With a SaaS platform such as ValueTrak, people can access key information and carry out certain types of functions even on mobile devices. So that’s critical as well.
And lastly, we’re a company that knows the industry very well. We’ve been right on the cusp of the industry changes in regards to data management and analytical practices and we’re always listening to our customers, building new capabilities and helping them meet the needs of a changing market. We’re not by any means sitting idle on a product that is a good solution today but may not be a good solution tomorrow. So our customers are really partners as we evolve our product, evolve the platform and integrate new data streams, which we do regularly, and deliver new applications in partnership with them. We’re really a platform for the industry that will continue to grow and garner more and more customers and capabilities and ideally be ubiquitous in the industry.
