Introduction

In an era of unprecedented demand for innovation and disruption brought on by

COVID-19, the pharmaceutical industry is experiencing major upheavals.
Companies have realized the need for an efficient system for developing,
marketing and distributing medicines but are facing challenges due to their
conservative methods of operations.
Hyperautomation
Merck & Co. seeks to gain sustained advantage over its competitors and must
implement frameworks and strategies to deliver value from new business and
operating models. Gartner’s top 10 strategic technology trends will help Merck gain
insights about the rapdily evolving IT landscape and spot opportunities for growth
and innovation.

Hyperautomation and AI Security are two technologies that are most likely to
drive the most innovation and strategy. These two technologies hold the potential
of solving key client issues and meet the mission critical priorities.
AI Security

Source: Gartner's Report on top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2020

Key Issues and Mission Critical Priorities
Merck's Objectives

Innovation through
Global market growth Strengthening R&D
digtal transformation

From Merck's Annual report:

"From now until 2022, we categorize our strategy as a period "Our priority area ‟Technology” is twofold. It is inherent in our
of growth and expansion, with all business sectors business sectors through our innovations, product pipelines and
contributing to our growth ambition. In order to achieve our digitalization strategies. In addition, the ways in which we
strategic ambition by 2022, we want to work on ensuring address cross-sector innovations is reflected in our approach to
strong and innovative, specialty-focused pillars with strong potentially disruptive technologies. It covers the closely
positions in our priority growth areas..." interlinked areas of innovation and digitalization..."

Source: Annual Reports of Merck Group

 Hyperautomation
Hyperautomation refers to the use of advanced technologies, like artificial Practical Use case in Pharma
intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and robotic process automation (RPA), to Challenge
automate tasks that were once completed by humans. Hyperautomation not only A pharmaceutical corporation needed to
refers to the tasks and processes that can be automated, but also the level of maintain the supply and production of critical
automation. It is often referred to as the next major phase of digital drugs during the COVID-19 crisis. Many of the
transformation. processes including receiving of raw materials,
setting up vendors, and generating quality and
manufacturing reports were very manual and
time-consuming.
There are several automation technologies that comprise hyperautomation. These
include: Solution
Robotic process automation (RPA) Raw material quality assurance (QA) and
Business process management (BPM) processing along with new vendor onboarding
Artificial intelligence (AI) and/or Machine learning (ML) processes was automated with RPA. Quality
Advanced analytics lab details were automatically translated into
ERP for batch data. Information from multiple
sources was then automatically pulled to assist
in creating weekly, monthly and quarterly
management quality reports.

Source: Gartner's Report on top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2020

 Hyperautomation

Flexibility. Improved employee productivity. Integration.

Since hyperautomation relies on a By automating time consuming tasks, With hyperautomation, organizations
can integrate digital technologies
Benefits helps organizations to achieve scale employees are able to get more done
across their processes and legacy
and flexibility in operations. with less resources and serve more
systems.for better access to data and
valuable roles in organizations.
seamless communication

Strategy Formulation Governance Lack of Talent

Many automation implementers fail to Similar to a lack of strategy many As innovation continues to accelerate,
consider many important factors companies fail to establish automation finding people with the right skills
Challenges before starting their project. A well project leadership. Resources must be becomes a major issue for companies
thought plan and roadmap is must for dedicated for proper governance of implementing any new technology
implementing Hyperautoamtion processes and systems including automation.

Source: Automation Hero's Report on "Key Automation Implementation mistakes"

 AI Security
Practical Use case in Pharma
AI security – is related to the fact that “evolving technologies such as hyper Challenge
automation and autonomous things offer transformational opportunities in the One of the largest pharmaceutical companies needed to
business world.” However, with great innovation comes great responsibility, as AI securely share statement of work files that include critical
and confidential internal information outside the company,
also comes with heightened security risks. Therefore, security teams in the business
with board members, consultants and its network of
world must be armed with knowledge regarding AI technologies, and how they
subcontractors. To achieve this, the sensitive information
affect security.
needed to be redacted from the documents before
sharing.
AI security includes three key perspectives:
Solution
Protecting AI-powered systems — Securing AI training data, training pipelines
Microsoft Azure AI/ML platform was selected to build an
and ML models
intelligent business solution to provide real-time redaction
Leveraging AI to enhance security defense — Using ML to understand patterns,
of PDF documents using optical character recognition.
uncover attacks and automate parts of cybersecurity processes Additionally, the system removes critical data completely
Anticipating nefarious use of AI by attackers— Identifying attacks and defending using rule-based automation. It then generates a concise
against them and meaningful summary of text from multiple documents
using natural language processing. This complete process
flow eliminated most of the manual intervention and
reduces the risk of human error by verifying the document.

Source: Gartner's Report on top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2020

 AI Security

Stronger compliance and business Mitigation of regulatory, legal and

Improved Confidentiality
oversight commercial risk
By reducing human intervention,
The implemented AI technologies
processes are less prone to errors and AI Security reduces security incidents
Benefits ensure confidentiality across different
are more compliant to standards. and events and helps in protecting AI
systems of the organization. Criical systems that may be at risk of
various AI techniques also help in
data remains secure with low chances breach.
regulating and improving business
of error due to human intervention.
oversight.
.

Stakeholder Buy-In Strategy for failure Process Innovation at Scale

Cultural and organisational barriers There must be a strategy and As AI Security operates and improves
need to be breached to gain buy-in processes in place to handle te failure using large data, process inoovation
Challenges from all relevant stakeholders. Many of AI security systems. No system is must be carried out throughout all
stakeholders do not understand the error free forever and they must keep processes and systems to supplement
need for security of AI systems and evolving according to the need of the data to AI security systems.
they must be informed. current IT security landscape.

Source: Report titled "ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND CYBERSECURITY: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES" by National Science and Technology Council(USA),
March 2020
Recommendations
Challenges for implementing these technologies can be solved by gaining key insights about the frameworks and strategies implemented
throughout the IT industry. Gartner's research in the following topics will greatly help in creating solutions and understanding the current
landscape of IT in Pharmaceutical Industry.

Advanced Intelligence and Insight: Data Curation, AI, Analytics Strategy

This core topic covers strategies, technologies and practices to successfully apply data, analytics and AI to achieve critical outcomes and
business objectives across the healthcare and life science industries. Gartner's research provides guidance to help deliver the highest
value from data and analytics investments. It defines solutions across analytics tools, technologies, vendors and architecture, and
encompasses foundational competencies, best practices, industry use cases,innovation and emerging analytics techniques. Following are
some Gartner reports on this topic

Gartner Healthcare Analytics Framework for Healthcare CIOs Healthcare’s Digital Data Dexterity Demands a Data
Curation and Enrichment Hub
Progress in Healthcare Analytics Lies in Leveraging Data
Drive a New Data and Analytics Architecture to Match Your
Emerging Applications of AI for Healthcare Providers Digital Healthcare Provider Needs

Healthcare Provider CIOs: Get Ahead of AI Innovation

with Strong AI Governance

Source: Gartner's Healthcare and Life Science Digital Optimization and Modernization Primer for 2020
Recommendations
Digital Strategy: Digital Business, Industry Platform Models, IT Strategy

This core topic dives deeply into the IT implications of industry dynamics and provides anunderstanding of how healthcare organizations
should leverage technology to support innovativeand transformative healthcare industry models. It helps develop a strategy that fits the
context ofthe changing industry, as well as the business priorities and implications of the industry’s businessdrivers. Following are some
Gartner reports on this topic:

2020 CIO Agenda: A Healthcare Payer Perspective How CIOs Can Build Six Key Competencies to Advance
Healthcare Ecosystem OrchestrationAbility
2020 CIO Agenda: A Healthcare Providers’ Perspective

Emerging Digital Health Business Models Create the Need for Open
Ecosystem IT Platform

Best Practices for Reimagining Your Life Sciences Company as a Digital

Business TechnologyPlatform

Source: Gartner's Healthcare and Life Science Digital Optimization and Modernization Primer for 2020
Recommendations
Industry Dynamics: Trends, Business and Operating Models, Innovation

This core topic references global patterns, policies and shifting dynamics that are shaping thehealthcare of the future. It addresses the
market forces and drivers that influence technologydecisions including social, economic, political, environmental and technology patterns,
and theirinfluence on healthcare and, most specifically, on healthcare transformation. The core topic includes predictions, business
drivers and technology innovation trends. Following are some Gartner reports on this topic:

Business Drivers of Technology Decisions for Healthcare Payers, 2020 Healthcare Provider CIO Guide to the Industry’s Technology
Innovation Trend
Business Drivers of Technology Decisions for Healthcare Providers,
202 Life Science CIO Guide to the Industry’s Technology
Innovation Trend
Business Drivers of Technology Decisions for Life Science
Organizations, 2020 Predicts 2020: Life Science CIOs Must Digitalize for
Business Growth”
Healthcare Payer CIO Guide to the Industry’s Technology Innovation
Trend

Source: Gartner's Healthcare and Life Science Digital Optimization and Modernization Primer for 2020