E220: The Intelligence Gap: Why Pharma's Biggest Deals Are Being Lost Before They Even Know They're Competing
In pharma, the biggest deals are increasingly won or lost before a formal process even begins. In this episode, Dr Andree Bates interviews Andrey Doronichev, co-founder and CEO of Bioptic, about the “intelligence gap” in business development, licensing, and corporate strategy, and why many companies are losing opportunities before they even know they’re competing.
Andrey shares how his background building products at Google, including launching the YouTube mobile app, shaped his obsession with making messy, unstructured information usable at speed. He argues that pharma intelligence suffers from a similar problem: critical signals exist across scientific, regulatory, and business sources globally, but traditional approaches rely on relationships, conferences, spreadsheets, and slow manual synthesis.
A key theme is competitive asymmetry. Deal teams are under pressure to source external innovation while the signal landscape expands rapidly, including an increasing share of patents and assets emerging outside the US. Andrey describes a common pattern: teams work from partial databases and manually maintained lists, then discover a competitor has already secured a preferred position with an asset they never saw coming, often in markets where information is harder to access.
Bioptic’s thesis is cadence. If the same landscape work that takes weeks via consultants or days internally can be done in minutes, the operating model changes. Instead of humans acting as data gatherers, they can spend time on the human work: judgement, relationship building, negotiation, and structuring deals. Andrey describes Bioptic as a “self evolving operating system” that can build new integrations and analyses on demand, closing the gap between questions and actionable intelligence.
Topics Covered
Why pharma’s biggest deals are lost before the process starts
The intelligence gap: relationships vs anticipatory signal capture
Global complexity, China signals, and why databases lag
Cadence as competitive advantage in BD and strategy
From spreadsheets to continuously updated intelligence
“Operating system” thinking and building capabilities on demand
Turning analysts from data gatherers into decision makers
What changes for BD teams over the next five years
Eularis helps pharma and biotech leaders turn AI activity into board-defensible strategy and measurable commercial outcomes.If your organisation has plenty of AI in motion but very little that moves the commercial needle in a way the board can see, start with our 10-Day AI Diagnostic Sprint. It’s a focused diagnostic that surfaces what’s actually broken and what’s blocking results, before you invest in a larger strategy effort.
The Sprint diagnoses the problem. The AI Strategic Blueprint that follows is where we build the board-defensible strategy and plan.Details at eularis.com.
If this episode described your situation, send me a LinkedIn DM starting with ‘SENSECHECK’ and two things: the question you’re trying to answer internally, and what’s currently in flight. I’ll reply with what I’d need to see to turn that activity into a defensible plan, and the next step.
About the Podcast
AI For Pharma Growth is the podcast from pioneering Pharma Artificial Intelligence entrepreneur Dr Andree Bates, created to help pharma, biotech and healthcare organisations understand how AI-based technologies can save time, grow brands, and improve company results.This show blends deep sector experience with practical conversations that demystify AI for biopharma leaders, from start-up biotech right through to Big Pharma. Each episode features experts building AI-powered tools that are driving real-world results across discovery, R&D, clinical trials, medical affairs, market access, regulatory, insights, sales, marketing, and more.