Why it's imperative to improve your program governance

The COVID-19 pandemic forced pharmaceutical companies to be nimble and adaptive in the face of new challenges, ultimately showing that it is possible to accelerate speed to market. This was especially true for Pfizer and Moderna, who brought the COVID-19 vaccine from development to launch in record time.

A saturated market, competitive pricing, and the proposed reduction of exclusivity for drugs entering the market in the EU mean that capitalizing on a first mover advantage is key to winning in the market and accelerating patient access. Taking a “fail fast” approach and increasing the pace across the product development pathway allows for a quicker discovery of the right solutions, especially for rare diseases.

However, traditional product development governance structures are slow and elongate time to market. These models typically follow a hub and spoke structure with one central body, the “hub,” supported by individual smaller teams, the “spokes.” In product development, the “hub” may be comprised of product owners while each “spoke” represents a different functional group (e.g., Regulatory, Quality, Medical, etc.).

Organizations developing pharmaceuticals must leverage a more flexible style of project management that adapts throughout the product lifecycle and promotes cross-functional operations to accelerate speed to market, optimizing economic performance, and patient access to care. Here are three paths pharma companies can take to improve their project management outputs.

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