Innovation in healthcare does not begin with a scientific breakthrough. It begins with trust. And trust is built through commercial execution, brand by brand, customer by customer, quarter by quarter.
I spent 25 years building commercial operations at Roche, Sanofi, and Novartis. I worked across oncology, immunology, rare diseases, and cardiovascular. The brands were different. Kesimpta, Cosentyx, Entresto, Kisqali, Lantus, Praluent, Jevtana. The pattern was consistent. When a brand delivered with clarity and drove measurable growth, internal stakeholders gained the confidence to prioritize the next compound. External partners gained evidence that the organization could turn science into market presence. The pipeline did not sustain itself on scientific merit. It sustained itself on commercial performance.
Why This Matters for the Pipeline
Every dollar of investment in research, clinical development, and manufacturing has to pass through commercial execution to reach the patient. If that execution is fragmented, slow, or misaligned, the science does not matter. The right treatment never finds the right patient at the right moment.
What AI Changes About Execution
What AI changes is the speed and precision of that execution. At Novartis, I embedded AI into 50% of marketing operations across 4 therapeutic areas and more than 10 brands. The 20% reduction in operating costs was real. What was more important was that the commercial operation became faster and more adaptive. Message testing happened before launch, not after. Customer simulation identified belief barriers while there was still time to address them. The execution improved because the feedback loops shortened.
Commercial performance is not the end of the process. It is what funds the next beginning.
If that gap between science readiness and commercial readiness is something your team is navigating right now, that is the conversation I want to have. See how I work with pharma and MedTech teams →