Medical and Regulatory Affairs Poised to Benefit from AI Investment in Data and Analytics

As an executive search consultancy which sources senior regulatory affairs leaders, we’re constantly being asked to find talented people who combine the traditional strengths of the regulatory affairs professional with a broader skill-set – one that includes strategic planning and negotiation. Alongside operational skills, commercial acumen is also important as regulatory leaders engage increasingly with the wider business and help to steer new drug development, product maintenance and sustainability.

The challenge of technology

One of the challenges facing today’s regulatory professionals is the increasing number of new technologies in development that must be actively monitored from drugs under clinical investigation to publications from regulatory agencies.

As one might expect, AI tools are increasingly being used to help to improve decision-making, manage complexity and make sense of ever-larger datasets. Therefore, it’s surprising that whilst life science companies have invested billions of dollars in AI technology in recent years, investment in AI for regulatory as well as medical affairs has been lacking in comparison to areas such as R&D or the commercial side of businesses.

According to McKinsey, regulatory affairs professionals are not the only ones lacking investment in the latest technology. Medical affairs professionals are also in a similar situation. In fact, McKinsey found that only 10 percent of life sciences companies said that they were ‘investors’ in medical affairs solutions.

Information overload

This theme is further developed by Sorcero, who specialise in medical affairs and regulatory affairs knowledge, in their White Paper, AI in Medical Affairs and Regulatory Affairs Trends for 2022. They note that with the rate of medical information growing exponentially at 36% annually, it’s more imperative than ever that life sciences companies invest in technology that empowers medical and regulatory affairs teams to effortlessly scale with the deluge of data.

Soroco go on to explain that the specific technical language of life sciences prohibits existing general-language AI solutions from being applied to the sector.

Conclusion

The good news is that recent innovations in language intelligence will provide the necessary technological breakthroughs to bring a higher degree of accuracy to life sciences content. This is all the more important as the rate of medical information is growing exponentially, making it more important than ever that life sciences companies invest in technology that empowers their regulatory and medical affairs teams.

As junior roles become more automated, there will be new opportunities for career progression for both regulatory and medical affairs professionals. This will also help with recruitment and retention as well as developing a talent pipeline. By embracing the power of data and analytics medical affairs professionals will be able to take on more strategic leadership roles. Likewise, for regulatory affairs leaders, advancements in AI will help them to manage the increasing complexity faced by global organisations.