At the 2025 Veeva R&D and Quality Summit, Stephanie Bova, Digital Transformation Officer of Drug Development at Novo Nordisk, detailed how the company is driving operational excellence through its strategic partnership with Veeva Systems. With an ambitious goal to optimize clinical development, Novo Nordisk initiated a 12-week joint sprint with Veeva aimed at delivering a 10% efficiency gain across core processes—without adding new systems.
The initiative targeted six high-impact areas, with a sharp focus on site collaboration, reducing complexity for trial investigators and patients, and applying AI in eTMF systems. A key realization was the need to integrate and operationalize data across Veeva Vaults, moving from siloed system thinking to a connected infrastructure that supports analytics-driven process improvement.
Stephanie highlighted that while the technology played a vital role, the real value came from co-creation: identifying where efficiencies could be squeezed from existing workflows and repurposed toward strategic activities. The 10% gain was not just theoretical—it stemmed from measurable enhancements in how systems support staff, sites, and ultimately, trial performance.
With this foundation, Novo Nordisk is redefining productivity benchmarks in drug development and paving the way for faster, smarter trials that better serve patients.
Moe Alsumidaie, MBA, MSF, is founder and Chief Editor of Vanguard Publications, which publishes Clinical Trial Vanguard, Pharma Vanguard and BullScope, and Head of Research at CliniBiz. He has two decades in clinical trial operations and data science, with earlier roles at Genentech, Abbott Vascular and Stanford University Medical Center, and is a guest lecturer in clinical trial sciences at Rutgers University.
