Peer Exchange: Marketing With AI

Pharmaceutical Executive recently brought together a group of experts to discuss the current state of AI within the pharmaceutical industry. The technology has become a major talking point across all industries over the past year-and-a-half, but it has been around for much longer than that. The technology’s ability to collect, sort, analyze, and generate results from large data sets makes it especially interesting for the pharma industry, where experts often find themselves limited by the massive amounts of data they must work with.

The panel includes Ryan Abbott, MD, JD, MTOM, PhD, professor of law and health sciences at the University of Surrey School of Law; Thomas Lau, engagement lead at Quilt.AI; and Robert Wells, healthcare regulatory attorney, shareholder at Baker Donelson. Each expert brought their unique perspective to a wide-ranging conversation.

One area that’s received a lot of focus in the AI discussion is the generative development space in pharma. Here, the technology offered a lot of promise, but also just as many concerns. Generative AI offers users the ability to quickly generate large amounts of text based on simple prompts. However, the results may contain errors, or hallucinations. Many people are also concerned that generative AI may replace human workers.

Pharma marketing has unique regulations when it comes to marketing, which has seemingly slowed the adoption of AI in marketing. However, the technology has a wide range of applications of analyzing market data and adjusting and testing assets for specific markets.

Regardless of how AI is utilized, it will require human oversight. Guidance from FDA is still coming (although the regulatory landscape has been set on an uncertain path based on the results from the recent election). For the moment, pharma companies are watching what’s happening with AI on an international scale to try and predict where it might move on a national level.