EVERSANA Launches ORCHESTRATE MLR Platform: Q&A with Faruk Capan

Faruk Capan
Chief innovation officer
EVERSANA

CEO
EVERSANA INTOUCH

Faruk Capan, chief innovation officer at EVERSANA and CEO of EVERSANA INTOUCH, and Dan Sheeran, GM of healthcare and life sciences at AWS, spoke with Pharmaceutical Executive about how the two companies worked together to launch a platform that uses AI to automate most of tasks associated with the MLR process. In the first part of this interview, Capan discusses the factors that brought this platform to life.

Pharmaceutical Executive: As the founder of an agency like EVERSANA INTOUCH 25 years ago, how long have you been thinking about a solution like this to change the way medical regulatory and legal reviews are done?
Faruk Capan: I’ve always been one to embrace new ways of thinking and technology. I've always been driven by the desire to innovate and improve processes within the pharmaceutical industry. Goes back to my days working in IT before I started Intouch.

I’ve always appreciated just how important processes are in the highly regulated pharmaceutical industry. For example, how the industry has managed medical, regulatory and legal reviews is critically important. Without them, as patients and caregivers read informational websites or see advertisements, for example, they need to know with confidence that the claims referenced are accurate. These tiny but invaluable pieces of information can mean the difference between a person understanding complications from a drug, when testing occurred, and so much more.

All that being said, the manual nature of this review process is very labor intensive, and I often thought this is an area where innovation could help. I knew that using advanced technologies like AI could bring about significant improvements. With the launch of EVERSANA ORCHESTRATE MLR, we are finally able to realize this vision, automating more than 90 percent of common tasks and drastically reducing review times. This solution is the culmination of years of dedication to finding better ways to serve our clients and improve efficiency in the industry.

PE: What’s the current process like for most brand teams?
Capan: The current process for most brand teams involves a complex and time-consuming workflow. This process includes multiple rounds of review, extensive documentation, and coordination among various stakeholders to ensure compliance and accuracy, typically taking two to three weeks and a team of eight to ten reviewers. Brand teams often face challenges such as managing large volumes of content, ensuring timely updates, and maintaining consistency across different channels. The traditional approach is highly manual, leading to significant administrative burdens and potential delays in getting content approved and published.

PE: How did the idea of leveraging AI come to mind for your team?
Capan: At EVERSANA, we continuously seek innovative solutions to address the complex challenges within the pharmaceutical industry. The emergence of generative AI presented a unique opportunity to revolutionize our processes by automating manual tasks that are time consuming. By collaborating with industry tech giants like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and integrating AI into our solutions, we really focused on enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and compliance to transform how we serve our clients and improve patient outcomes.

PE: Talk about how you connected with AWS and how your visions came together? What’s the process been like to collaborate with them?
Capan: Connecting with AWS was a pivotal moment for EVERSANA. We recognized the immense potential of generative AI to streamline the MLR review process, but we needed a partner with the expertise and infrastructure to bring our vision to life. AWS, with its robust suite of services and innovative approach, was the perfect fit. Our collaboration began with a shared goal of leveraging AI to solve complex challenges in the life sciences industry.

It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience. Their team, along with partners like Modus Create, brought deep knowledge and technical ability, particularly with systems like Amazon Bedrock. The collaboration between our teams has been remarkable, and together, we've created a solution that not only enhances efficiency and compliance but also sets a new standard for the industry.

PE: Now that ORCHESTRATE MLR is live, what have you seen in the pilot and testing stages that make it so powerful for the industry?
Capan: Each time I've seen the progress of the system it's been quite remarkable, especially in the testing stages to where we are today with launch. The platform has been proven to deliver on the efficiencies we had hoped to solve our clients' biggest challenges. Through the power of technology, we have been able to automate up to 90% of common tasks in the review process, significantly reducing the time required for content updates and overall reviews.

For example, tasks that would typically take about eight hours to annotate are now being completed in just 45 minutes, even with a real person in the loop for verification. That’s the true tangible, measurable impact that client teams can now leverage in other parts of their business.

I’ve seen so many clients and prospects look at the tool and say that it is amazing, we need that. We really think this is the game-changing solution our industry needs.