How to Innovate Successfully in Life Sciences

Innovation is critical, but it’s also complex. In the highly regulated, data-intensive world of Life Sciences, success requires more than a digital budget or interest in emerging technologies. It demands a thoughtful, business-driven approach that aligns with the unique operational and regulatory needs of the industry.

Knowing how to innovate is key. But with way too many options to consider, Life Sciences companies can often be drowned by all the noise; either refusing to innovate because of perceived complexity, choosing the wrong path, or have experienced diminished returns from prior attempts at innovation.

In our previous blog in the series, we covered why innovation is hard in Life Sciences and what to do about it. We even gave some tips on how to proceed. Now, we’re going to go into each tip we made in more detail, giving more depth into how Life Sciences companies can ensure effective innovation that drives success.

Five ways to drive innovation in Life Sciences

Here’s what Life Sciences organizations need to do to effectively innovate to deliver business outcomes and stay ahead in a competitive landscape:

One: Separate “the signal from the noise”

Remember, not all innovation is equal. And not all of it is relevant. With a constant flood of new technologies and ideas, it’s easy to lose focus or invest in initiatives that don’t move the needle, or become outdated in a matter of months (like so many AI solutions). Effective innovation means identifying and prioritizing the opportunities that will create the greatest business and patient value. That means focusing on what supports core objectives like faster product release, better patient outcomes, or improved supply chain resilience.

Key to this is creating structured ways to evaluate innovations, such as internal use-case scoring, technology readiness assessments, or targeted discovery workshops with cross-functional teams.

A good example of this would be a Generics manufacturer that drives their innovation initiatives under one central digital innovation team, reporting to the CIO to align all initiatives and make sure that they fit the overall IT strategy and architecture.

Two: A clear business-driven innovation strategy

Don’t let technology dictate strategy. This is one of the most common missteps. Real innovation starts with a clear understanding of the problem to be solved e.g. inefficiencies in batch release to blind spots in clinical supply visibility. Only by defining clearly what needs to be solved can the correct innovation take place to address the challenges undermining success.

When innovation is driven by business needs, Life Science organizations will find that:

• Goals are clearly defined
• Metrics for success are agreed up front
• Teams are aligned on the “why,” not just the “how”

Too often, innovation can steam ahead without goals, metrics and purpose being aligned. Or they remain fluid, leading to confusion and disappointment when innovation doesn’t generate the results that were expected.

This approach keeps efforts grounded and ensures that new tools or processes are meaningful, scalable, and supported across departments.

Another example would be a mid-size family-owned pharmaceutical company that defined their digital strategy based on their corporate strategy 2030, encompassing all elements from drug development to digital factory to ESG.

Three: Make the most out of your SAP investments and existing data

Most large Life Sciences companies have been running SAP for many years. They already have powerful enterprise platforms, extensive process documentation, and vast stores of data. But these assets are often underutilized and therefore not generating the returns that are expected.

Some believe that successful innovation means starting from scratch. But this is wrong. In reality, as we’ve experienced, innovation is a ticket to:

• Unlocking more value from existing ERP systems
• Connecting data across silos for richer insights
• Standardizing processes globally while keeping local flexibility

By building on existing systems and data, Life Sciences organizations reduce risk, improve supply chain efficiency, and increase patient outcomes.

An example worth thinking about is a large international pharmaceutical company that is currently introducing SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) to leverage their corporate heterogenous data for real insights on all enterprise functions like R&D, Clinical Supply, Supply Chain, Manufacturing etc.

Four: Fill the gaps

Life Sciences is not a one-size-fits-all industry. Standard enterprise tools can miss the mark in areas with specific compliance or scientific requirements like GMP manufacturing, clinical supply chain orchestration, or document traceability.

To innovate successfully, Life Sciences companies need to identify the gaps that are present in the market, as well as in their processes and services. Quite often, the low-hanging fruit is the easiest to find and the best place to start.

A great example would be the Cell & Gene Treatment Orchestration that was co-innovated by Tenthpin with SAP technology. There are no standard processes and solutions available when it comes to cell therapies. So, there was a clear gap for a cell and gene treatment solution that fit the new area of patient centric treatments.

Another example would be a Biotech start-up that decided to implement SAP CGTO to scale-up their manufacturing and distribution capabilities as key pillar for their commercialization.

Five: Create new competitive advantages

In a rapidly evolving industry, sometimes the right solution simply doesn’t exist yet. In these cases, innovation becomes an act of creation, not just selection. Life Sciences organizations that lead the market are those willing to:

• Define new standards for digital capabilities
• Co-develop solutions with ecosystem partners or internal product teams
• Pilot and scale ideas that offer long-term differentiation

Let’s take an example. Almost all Life Sciences companies have been running SAP for many years, but sometimes the existing SAP standard can be insufficient for their needs and a new standard solution for Life Sciences is required. That’s when defining a new standard becomes a necessity.

This approach requires more investment and coordination, but can offer the high returns that boost business and patient outcomes. Such innovations can set the pace for the rest of the market.

Another example of this would be a successful Biotech company that redesigned their business processes and SAP S/4HANA template to accommodate their product portfolio switch from small molecules to individualized therapies.

We know the best solutions in the SAP ecosystem for your needs and advise you how to implement them

What are the outcomes of successful innovation?

Taking the leap into innovation can lead to benefits that go far beyond your Life Sciences company; they bring better outcomes for patients too. Here’s what to expect when you innovate successfully:

• Create competitive​ advantages​: Innovating your business with new standard digital solutions and AI positions you as a leader in the Life Sciences space with a competitive edge​.
• Become more data-driven​ & patient centric​: Fully visualizing a patient centric strategy with fit-for-purpose solutions ensures you deliver the right​ personalized treatments that create the better outcomes.
• Leverage the latest technologies​: Whether you’re using SAP’s Business Technology Platform, AI toolkit Joule, or other modern tools and innovations, you’ll future-proof your operations and unlock automation, analytics, and scalability for your Life Sciences company.
• Reduce risk of​ non-compliance​: Innovation means embedding regulatory and GxP compliance into every framework. This minimizes audit risk and ensures your latest innovations are inspection-ready from day one.​
• Boost implementation​ & ROI: ​By leveraging proven templates, modular architectures, and agile delivery, you can accelerate time-to-value and ensure your investment starts delivering impact faster.
• Enhance collaboration​ & transparency​: Co-innovations can enable real-time data sharing across teams, functions, and partners to boost visibility, reduce silos, and foster agile decision-making.