VIDEO | Sanofi Global Data Governance Lead: There is No Digital Without Data

(US and Canada) Santha Ramakrishnan, Global Data Governance Lead, Sanofi, speaks with Lauren LeRoy, Director of Product Marketing, BigID, about the role of data in the pharma business, the benefits of digital transformation in life sciences, and the concept of data literacy.

Ramakrishnan shares that making medicines and getting them to patients generates and uses a lot of data, and it is generated in different parts. She explains that typically, there are buckets of multiple kinds of data with multiple nuances. This makes pharmaceutical R&D interesting. In addition to the complexity, volume, and veracity of the data, there is also the challenge of privacy because a lot of it is generated from patients. It is important to use it ethically and responsibly, which makes this a governance challenge.

Speaking on the benefits of digital transformation in life sciences she says that it has to be used within R&D, which has its challenges. The different business processes generate different data and those nuances make digital transformation very hard to accomplish. She mentions use cases like using digital transformation for remote access of labs or connecting all the instruments within a lab to talk to each other on a digitally enabled platform.

Further, Ramakrishnan acknowledges the role of data and says that there is no digital without data. It is not just about creating yet another platform or another dashboard. So, the data office at Sanofi is making sure that the data is available for that digital transformation and is driven by the concepts of fair, findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable, and good quality data.

She goes on to speak about data culture and literacy and says that the more people are aware of the value and the story of data as it moves along the enterprise, the better they can engage with it. On the data literacy aspect, she states that it means knowing why a certain piece of data exists and what should be done with it.