Data-driven R&D is important for patients, populations, and health systems

Every patient’s experience – getting a diagnosis, starting treatment, living with side effects, seeing what works and what does not – generates information that can help improve their care and care for others. Collected and used responsibly with the appropriate levels of informed consent, this information helps pharmaceutical researchers understand diseases better, enabling the development of new medicines and vaccines for people who need them. This information is an example of one type of real world data that is important for advancing healthcare.

Pharmaceutical companies use this type of real world data, among others, to ensure and improve safety, efficacy, and effectiveness of care for patients, populations, and health systems. More and better data that is representative and used responsibly helps develop better health solutions. Understanding patient and population health and leveraging the growing scientific knowledge base are some of the most meaningful ways of informing impactful pharmaceutical R&D and bringing us closer to addressing present and future clinical need.

This position paper outlines the different types of data and why they matter — for developing life-saving medical innovations, ehancing patient outcomes, and improving health systems.