Pharma Companies Search for Solutions for Better Data Integration, Assessment

Pharmaceutical companies are under an increasingly focused spotlight as the government continues to crack down on marketing and promotion practices. The crackdown has led to many high profile (and high dollar) settlements that have pharma companies across the country scrambling to refocus and reform their compliance programs.

And, naturally, opportunistic software developers have swooped in to capitalize.

A recent article at Bio Pharma Today outlines how pharma compliance has become such “big business” from a software perspective but also how much of a challenge it is to truly integrate all of the relevant data.

While drug makers have embraced some services, they say it’s difficult to come up with adequate solutions. Complying with government mandates is a complex task that reaches into every department and system in a company. Valli Baldassano, executive vice president and chief compliance officer at Cephalon, said the challenge is finding data in the company’s business system that is useful for managing compliance.

Baldassano said there is so much data in an organization and it is housed in so many different ways it’s hard for an outside shop to find a compliance solution that fits everyone. Cephalon has not utilized any outside compliance services but instead has built its own systems, including a process for reporting payments to health care providers.

Read more at Bio Pharma Today.