Transforming Biopharma

Companies are making meaningful progress in bringing barriers-driven engagement™ to life—embedding orchestration into workflows and rethinking how CRM supports smarter decision-making, coordination and customer progress. But turning that progress into consistent value remains complex.
In this podcast, Maria Whitman speaks with ZS experts Namita Powers, Srihari Sarangan, Omer Hancer, Mahmood Majeed and Ronan Wisdom about what pharma has learned over the past year and what it really takes to make CRM work in practice.
Highlights include:
How companies are taking different approaches to identifying and addressing customer barriers, from targeted experience transformation to enterprisewide solutions
How advanced analytics and technology are helping infer barriers at the individual level and enable compliant, coordinated engagement
Why integrating “systems of intelligence” with day-to-day workflows is critical to turning insight into action and impact

In this episode, Arno Sosna, president of the CRM Suite at Veeva, joins Maria Whitman to explore how AI is transforming CRM in life sciences into a dynamic engine for insight and action. They unpack the emergence of Commercial Evidence™—real-time insights into treatment barriers—and how conversational, agentic AI unlocks a new, faster way to understand and serve customers. The conversation offers a look at how this shift fundamentally reshapes decision-making, workflows and ultimately patient access to care. 
Highlights:
Why traditional CRM models miss the full picture behind treatment barriers—and how AI generates actionable Commercial Evidence at scale 
How conversational AI in CRM enables a continuous, omnichannel dialogue between commercial teams and HCPs 
What it takes to move from insight to impact using AI to drive precision engagement, not just collect more data 
Why removing friction between patients and treatment isn’t just a goal, but a “moral obligation” for the industry

The rapid evolution of generative AI has led to increased adoption but also raises significant compliance challenges. ZS Principal Michael Shaw joins the podcast to discuss the importance of responsible and ethical AI adoption in the biopharma industry, particularly as it relates to compliance, risk management and improving patient outcomes. 
Highlights include:
The importance of developing a comprehensive framework for responsible AI, focusing on principles like fairness, safety, transparency and accountability 
Why effective AI governance requires cross-functional collaboration and continuous trade-off assessment
How leveraging AI to enhance workflows can drive efficiency and effectiveness but must be implemented thoughtfully with the right controls in place

As senior vice president of customer distribution experience at McKesson, Ammie McAsey makes it a point to connect her day-to-day work with the company’s mission of improving healthcare in every setting. Learn how she’s working to connect the healthcare ecosystem to bring additional access and benefits to patients. Highlights include:
Her view of the opportunities for collaboration to build a better healthcare value chain
Discussion of how we can improve the patient’s experience
Areas where she sees the most potential for innovation across healthcare

Colin Lake, VP and head of digital care transformation, neurology and rare disease at UCB, is passionate about helping patients with rare diseases. He joins Maria Whitman to talk about how UCB has focused on simplifying its digital strategy to address key pain points for rare disease patients. 
Highlights include:
Why partnerships are an important part of this journey
How a collaboration using ZS’s direct-to-patient offering helped UCB move the needle of diagnosis
Why pharma leaders should experiment with new technologies to drive real change and innovation