The 2024 Veeva R&D and Quality Summit brought together industry leaders and professionals to discuss the latest clinical trial technologies, life sciences advancements, and strategies shaping the industry. The event featured keynotes and sessions from industry leaders, including Peter Gassner, Founder and CEO of Veeva Systems, along with other keynote speakers like Seb Moity, Head of IT Digital Clinical Operations at UCB in the clinical data keynote, and Kevin O’Brien, Senior Vice President, Clinical Development Operations at Eikon Therapeutics in the Veeva Development Cloud keynote. The conference provided a platform for sharing insights on product innovations, applying AI, integration across systems and functions, and the transformation of clinical data management, with a strong focus on improving collaboration between research sites and sponsors.
Keynote by Peter Gassner: Veeva’s Vision and Product Innovations
Peter Gassner began by emphasizing Veeva’s unwavering commitment to the life sciences industry, highlighting the company’s mission to deliver positive ROI for customers and to act as a durable, long-term industry partner. Gassner elaborated on the significance of Veeva being a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), explaining that this status mandates the board to balance the interests of customers, shareholders, and the industry. This unique structure ensures that Veeva’s focus extends beyond profit maximization to include broader industry benefits.
Gassner then delved into Veeva’s three main product offerings: Development Cloud, Commercial Cloud, and Data Cloud. He discussed the significant shift for Veeva’s flagship CRM product, migrating from the Salesforce.com platform to the Veeva Vault platform. This move is expected to bring innovation and enhanced capabilities to the commercial cloud side of life sciences. He also introduced the first data product for clinical, delivering centralized reference data for research sites, such as specialization, trial history, and specialty areas, which in turn help sponsors identify appropriate research sites more efficiently, leading to faster trial initiation.
Transforming Clinical Data Management
The second session of the conference featured Richard Young, VP of Strategy for Clinical Data at Veeva, Seb Moity, Head of IT Digital Clinical Operations at UCB, and two speakers from a top 20 biopharma. Together, they discussed the transformation of clinical data management and the pivotal role of digital solutions in this process. Richard Young began by reflecting on the evolution of Veeva’s clinical data strategy, one he started developing back in 2017. He highlighted the importance of connected applications and tools to solve the entire data chain, an improvement that can make clinical trials more efficient and accessible. Young emphasized the need for faster clinical trial results to meet patient needs and discussed the role of Veeva’s Clinical Data Strategy team in achieving this goal.
Young shared insights into developing and launching Veeva’s EDC system, which aims to streamline data management processes and improve trial outcomes. He explained that the EDC system was designed to address the limitations of traditional data management systems, which often involve manual processes and fragmented data sources.
Now, Veeva Clinical Data applications are helping the industry advance clinical data management. For example, Veeva Clinical Database (Veeva CDB) integrates study data from multiple sources, providing a unified platform for managing clinical trial data. This reduces the need for manual data entry and minimizes the risk of errors, ultimately leading to more accurate and reliable trial results. In the end, Veeva Clinical Data helps companies run the trial they need, not the one the industry has been historically limited to.
Young advocated for allowing research sites the flexibility to use their preferred technology while maintaining efficient and automated data sharing with sponsors, addressing the concern that research sites spend too much time learning new technology rather than focusing on patient care.
The importance of collaboration between technology providers and biopharma companies was also emphasized by Young. He noted that successfully implementing digital solutions requires close cooperation and a shared commitment to innovation. By working together, he argued, technology providers and biopharmas can overcome clinical data management challenges and drive significant improvements in trial efficiency and outcomes. He also discussed the factors influencing whether to outsource or insource, highlighting that the decision depends on trial size, available resources, and the benefits of setting up internal infrastructure versus leveraging external CRO resources.
Moity from UCB shared how the company thinks about the end-to-end patient experience, ensuring they can empower, enable, and educate clinical trial participants. He shared a practical perspective on implementing digital clinical applications, like Veeva eCOA, to deliver a better experience to patients.
A top 20 biopharma also shared their insights and provided valuable context for understanding the impact of Veeva’s solutions on large-scale clinical trial operations. The representatives discussed the challenges of managing complex clinical trials, particularly regarding data integration and coordination across multiple sites and stakeholders. They emphasized the importance of seamless data integration, noting that fragmented data sources can lead to inefficiencies and errors.
Veeva’s solutions, they explained, have helped address these challenges by providing a unified platform for managing clinical trial data. According to the representative, one of the key benefits is the ability to streamline data collection and analysis. They noted that Veeva Vault EDC has significantly reduced the time required to collect and analyze trial data, allowing their company to make more informed decisions and improve data accuracy and reliability, further enhancing trial outcomes.
The representatives also highlighted the importance of Veeva’s automation capabilities. They explained that Veeva’s application bots and direct data API have automated many of the repetitive tasks involved in clinical data management, freeing their teams to focus on more strategic activities. This automation has improved efficiency and reduced the risk of errors, leading to more accurate and reliable trial results.
In conclusion, the representatives emphasized the value of Veeva’s collaborative approach. They noted that Veeva’s product managers and strategy teams have responded highly to their feedback, continuously improving the solutions to meet their evolving needs. They also stressed the importance of a connected technology ecosystem across different areas, such as clinical data with clinical operations and pharmacovigilance, to streamline processes and improve workflow efficiency.
Updates to Site Connect and New AI Applications
One of the most significant announcements was a major release of Veeva Site Connect, designed to streamline sponsor and site collaboration across various study-related activities. Site Connect aims to provide a standard site interface, reducing the complexity and improving the user experience for sponsors and sites. Jim Reilly, VP of Veeva Development Cloud Strategy, explained that the new version of Site Connect includes features for study information, communication, document sharing, and safety letters. It also offers self-service user administration for sites, allowing them to manage their user accounts and permissions. This level of self-service is a significant improvement over previous versions, which required sponsors to handle user administration tasks.
Reilly emphasized that Site Connect is connected with Veeva’s clinical operations applications, which includes eTMF and CTMS. This ensures that all study-related data is stored securely, making it easier for sponsors and sites to access and manage information. He also pointed out that Site Connect provides a consistent user experience across different studies and sponsors, reducing the learning curve for site staff. By offering a standardized and user-friendly solution, Veeva aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of sponsor-site collaboration, ultimately enhancing the overall quality of clinical trials.
In addition to Site Connect, Reilly discussed the role of AI in Veeva’s future. He mentioned that Veeva is exploring various applications of AI, such as using AI to assist in drafting documents and finding information. He also highlighted the potential for AI-powered bots to provide a more intuitive and efficient way for users to interact with applications. While these AI initiatives are still early, Reilly expressed optimism about their potential to enhance Veeva’s product offerings and improve the overall user experience. By focusing on practical and impactful AI applications, Veeva aims to provide its customers with tools to improve their productivity and efficiency significantly.
Summary
The Veeva R&D and Quality Summit Systems showcased the company’s dedication to innovation and excellence in the life sciences industry. With a focus on product development, automation, and customer-centric strategies, Veeva continues to lead the way in transforming clinical trials and data management. The insights industry leaders and professionals shared highlighted the significant progress made and the exciting future for clinical trials and life sciences. The emphasis on improving collaboration between research sites and sponsors, flexibility in technology use, and a connected ecosystem of applications highlight Veeva’s commitment to driving efficiency and innovation in the industry.
This article is sponsored by Veeva Systems
Moe Alsumidaie is Chief Editor of The Clinical Trial Vanguard. Moe holds decades of experience in the clinical trials industry. Moe also serves as Head of Research at CliniBiz and Chief Data Scientist at Annex Clinical Corporation.
