Aktana Welcomes New Medical Affairs Lead from IBM Watson Health (Now Merative)

Deepak Patil brings deep data science experience in life sciences to drive Aktana’s medical affairs team in response to growing need for improved healthcare professional engagement

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#AI—Aktana, the leader in intelligent customer engagement for the global life sciences industry, welcomes Deepak Patil as its new senior director of medical strategy. Patil comes to Aktana after leadership roles at IBM Watson Health, IQVIA, and Sun Pharma Industries (Mumbai, India), where he managed medical affairs in conjunction with six key product launches and developed lasting relationships with key opinion leaders in targeted therapeutic areas. At Aktana, Patil will lead the company’s medical affairs program, initially helping to build modern, data-driven solutions for medical science liaisons (MSLs), but over time, also expand to other areas within medical affairs.

Medical Affairs is the “third strategic pillar of the pharmaceutical organization alongside R&D and commercial, as science and data merge,” according to a McKinsey report. Business models are starting to evolve both around and beyond the “product” to encompass the wider therapeutic context, while organizations seek to explain and contextualize the ever more complex medical science to a diverse range of stakeholders (physicians, patients, payers). In outreach efforts, MSLs and commercial teams can unintentionally overlap, causing major compliance issues and frustrating doctors. Aktana’s intelligence solutions will not only help medical affairs improve key opinion leader relationships but also better orchestrate outreach to the physician community in compliance with regional engagement regulations.

“Deepak brings a unique blend of medical experience – he received his medical degree in India – plus data science and operational expertise from IQVIA and IBM,” said Clay Hausmann, chief revenue officer at Aktana. “As we prioritize new, AI-driven solutions for medical affairs teams, Deepak will help expertly shape our new offerings while building a powerhouse team focused on this increasingly important area of life sciences.”

Aktana has also announced a strategic partnership with Envision Pharma Group, a global, technology-enabled scientific communications company operating across many areas of medical affairs. Envision and Aktana will combine their offerings to help MSLs address HCP demands for personalized scientific content and coordinated omnichannel engagement.

“Aktana is committed to enabling the medical affairs organization in a new era, and I’m excited to serve in a leadership role as part of this endeavor,” said Deepak Patil. “The real-world data is there. With the right technology, we have the power to improve the generation and dissemination of scientific insights to physicians, leading to better treatment decisions and outcomes for their patients.”

With more than 300 deployments across 50+ use cases, Aktana has been refining its commercial life sciences intelligence platform for more than a decade. More than half of the world’s top-20 pharmaceutical companies rely on Aktana to coordinate and optimize personalized omnichannel engagement with HCPs. Aktana’s Contextual Intelligence 360 platform is powered by the company’s next-generation Contextual Intelligence Engine, which uses AI-driven optimization to predict the value of all potential customer experiences, then prioritize and recommend Next Best Engagements that will deliver the highest ROI.

About Aktana

Aktana is the category creator and leader of intelligent engagement in the global life sciences industry. By ensuring that every customer experience is tailored to individual preferences and needs, Aktana helps life science companies strengthen their relationships with healthcare providers to inspire better patient care. Today, commercial and medical teams from more than 300 brands use Aktana’s AI-enabled Contextual Intelligence Engine to coordinate and optimize personalized omnichannel engagement at scale. More than half of the top-20 global pharmaceutical companies are Aktana customers. Headquartered in San Francisco, Aktana has offices in every major biopharma region around the world. For more information, visit www.aktana.com.

Contacts

Lisa Barbadora

[email protected]
(610) 420-3413