Both providers and users of digital pathology are confident that clinical use cases and the evidence needed to assure payers and encourage investment by commercial labs will overcome challenges around access and adoption.

Pharma companies are applying digital pathology throughout their research and development functions. Where are they now finding value?

Data science and data analytics offer operational advantages throughout large organizations. And the pharma should approach digital technology pragmatically, first applying the tools to what it already does.

Biomarkers will be key to winning the race to a successful AD drug. Even then, drugmakers must build the infrastructure for getting therapy to the right patients at the right time.

Immuno-oncology’s challenge is to orchestrate a biomarker program in a highly competitive drug development landscape knowing that prior to having significant clinical experience, the program is unlikely to yield the kinds of binary measurements used to define and select a patient population for a targeted therapy.

The oncology community believes that immunotherapy will be foundational, in the same way that combination chemotherapy became the backbone of treatment in the 1970s. The marching order is to trial broadly, quickly, making clinical development particularly well-suited for Big Pharma.