At IPG Health’s annual Next: Innovation Week, our medical communications experts Ariel Buda-Levin, President, Medical Communications across ProHealth, AREA 23 on Hudson and Vio; Ammy Santiago, PhD, Director, Medical Strategy, Vio; Eoin Duffy, Associate Medical Director, CMC Connect; Ilana Scholl, Head of Digital Strategy, Caudex, explored how technology and emerging societal trends are changing how brand data is spread and how patients and HCPs engage with it.
AI is filling the top of the funnel and fast
It now takes an average of 10–15 years and billions of dollars to bring a drug to market, with a traditional success rate of just 10%. But AI is changing that.
"As of 2024, there were 76% of investigational drugs that were underway [that] had used AI in that molecule discovery phase," Ammy said. "If this usage really holds, it’s predicted that this will double the productivity and output of pharma R&D."
AI’s ability to simulate biological systems, model toxicity and predict viability is already having an impact. "The early information that we have right now is that for phase one successes, it’s about an 80 to 90% success rate from an AI-identified molecule," Ammy shared. "That’s twice as likely than traditional ways of doing this."
Trials are evolving—with patients in the driver’s seat of design
AI isn’t the only force reshaping the R&D pipeline. The way trials are designed and conducted is getting a major upgrade, starting with a new emphasis on patient input.
"In April of this year, a new item on patient and public involvement was added to the widely used CONSORT checklist," Owen said. "Fewer than 20% of trials actually involve patients at this design stage," he added, but the hope is that this number climbs.
Why does this matter? "Studies have shown that patient involvement at this point improves recruitment and retention, reduces the number of protocol amendments that might be required during the trial conduct, and it also ensures that the outcomes assessed actually reflect what truly matters to patients," Owen said.
And thanks to wearables, it’s become easier to involve patients and collect data remotely.
llana noted that while recruiting enough patients for trials in certain areas can be challenging, the use of AI to create digital twins offers a promising solution.
"We can create digital twins, which will allow us ultimately to model people, use less people and then even bring product to market faster," Ilana said.
Publishing and promotion are going omnichannel
In a world where HCPs and patients are Googling conditions, asking ChatGPT for diagnoses and scrolling medical Twitter, traditional publication strategies are getting a rethink.
"Papers with enhanced publication content are engaged with and cited up to three times more than papers that don’t include it," Owen said. "So, it seems to be a bit of a no-brainer."
Owen emphasized that while impact factor is still important, it’s no longer the only measure of publication reach. Paywalls block access, not just for people, but for AI.
"Patients and HCPs are using AI tools to ask questions about various healthcare topics," Owen said. "And if a manuscript's abstract is the only part of the manuscript that's visible, but the rest is behind a paywall, then certain pertinent information could be omitted from the large language model's response."
That means publication extenders, like infographics, videos, podcasts and plain-language summaries, are increasingly critical to boost readership and lead to more citations.
We need to optimize for people and machines
From marketing to medical affairs, one shared takeaway rang out: the content we create must work harder across platforms.
Ilana highlighted a key suggestion to "shift from static one-way communication to dynamic, real-time and personalized engagement, especially through digital platforms."
Ammy noted, "I think there's an opportunity for us to think about, as we build content that's optimized for humans to consume, how are we complementing that in a way for large language models to consume it as well?"
Owen stressed that marketers must encourage clients and author groups to continue to publish open access to make disease data available for both patients and HCPs.
The future? It’s collaborative, connected and increasingly AI-aware.
As Ilana put it, "We’ve talked about year after year putting the patient at the center, putting the HCP at the center. But if we’re really going to do that, we have to pull in all of the resources and tools at our fingertips to really make that happen."
