Modernizing Decision-Making through Innovative Software: Captario

“We take pride in our agile approaches to product development — this industry is moving fast; we expect to move faster.”

Captario, the peerless SaaS company in advanced decision analytics, is on a mission to deliver world-class products and professional services that improve strategic decisions in the pharma industry, enabling more and better medicines to get to the patients that need them, faster. The backbone of the company, Captario SUM^®, is a modeling, simulation, and analyzation SaaS tool supplying informed analysis from clinical to commercial launch for products and across entire portfolios.

The company is based in Goteborg, Sweden.

We met Johannes Vänngård, CEO and co-founder of Captario, at a local café where he spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Here’s what he shared over fika, the beloved Swedish coffee/pastry break.

Interview Highlights

Q. What groundbreaking and proactive methodology does Captario implement to meet patients’ expectations?

Started in a basement by four pharmaceutical industry veterans, the challenge of shared intelligence and siloed functions was a glaring problem in the typically 10-year turnaround for getting a drug to market. With that common vision, however outlandish, our founding group wanted to change the world by helping patients obtain access to medications that improve quality of life faster than previously imaginable. Initially, we were laughed at, but soon found investors that shared our vision of what pharma decision-making could be.

The proprietary tool, Captario SUM^® (Strategic Uncertainty Management), bases strategic decisions in drug development on data from holistic and dynamic end-to-end models of opportunities and portfolios— these models include any and all uncertainties. The proactive methodology of Captario SUM^® allows for real-time updates of data across all departments eliminating the inefficiency of intra-company lag-time and enabling the exploitation of potential opportunities and the mitigation of risks. This groundbreaking combination of augmented intelligence and machine learning with multi-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation delivers unparalleled control, insight, and simulation capabilities for a project or portfolio analysis, all of which impact the ability for drugs to get to market for the patients that need them.

Q. What can you tell us about the SUM^® software? And how does it impact strategic decision-making in drug development?

By using ranges instead of point estimates, Captario SUM^® better accounts for uncertainty by visualizing a complete picture for informing tough pharma decisions. Furthermore, with Captario’s unique sandbox environment, clients can analyze all possible ‘what if’ scenarios without negatively affecting their baseline environment. When a better competitive outcome is identified, a new baseline is created, optimizing strategy.

Q. How skilled is the Captario team of experts? And how do they bring value to the company?

With more than 200 years of professional experience in the pharmaceutical space, the Captario team saw first-hand how high-risk billion-dollar decisions in drug development lacked a tool that leverages modern technology and theory. So, Captario built the one. For more than a decade, Captario has collaborated with numerous development teams, including many of the top 30 global pharmaceutical companies, validating analytics and answering complex drug development questions.

Q. What else is on the development plate at Captario?

Captario committed to continuously evolve its offerings based on current and future market needs. “Through ongoing collaborations and custom solution builds with our customers, Captario has recently launched professional services to enhance our technology platform.” In addition, Captario continuously improves its tools and services based on direct customer feedback, developed by a best-in-class global development team. Captario expects to launch an updated version of SUM^® in the next year that will further revolutionize the way decisions are made in pharma.

Q. Given how frequently circumstances change, what plans for transformation are you pursuing to remain relevant now and in the future?

At Captario, we believe we are the change. Our team is vigilant in our commitment to ongoing learning in the areas of drug development, data science, mathematics, augmented intelligence, and machine learning to continuously deliver novel solutions to better societal health. We also take pride in our agile approaches to product development — this industry moves fast; we expect to move faster.

Q. How do you plan to counter challenges that you think Captario might face in the next five years?

Captario counters challenges by keeping customers and patients at the heart of everything they do. To further this collaboration, the Captario conference will launch later this year, bringing together the greatest minds in drug development to propel everyone to a brighter, bolder, and more successful future. Within the organization, Captario is focused on attracting, hiring, and retaining a world-class team who are passionate and committed to capturing the future and the future of customers.

Q. What is your final message to The Silicon Review readers; your current and future clients and partners?

Captario is committed to making a positive impact on a global scale. The team is fiercely curious about the unknown, dares to be pioneers, and acts to provide game-changing contributions. They are modernizing decision-making through peerless software. Collectively, the team constantly looks to out-perform themselves and work as partners with customers which continually improves and expands the product with white glove service.

Captario SUM^® was purpose-built by individuals who deeply understand the need for proactive, faster, and more insightful decisions in pharma – because most of us were once in our customers’ shoes. We are not just saying we are committed to understanding our customers’ needs, we are truly putting them at the center of our business.

Johannes Vänngård | CEO & Co-Founder

Johannes Vänngård is an engineer and entrepreneur and has been part of founding several innovative tech companies in different industries. Over the years Vänngård has taken a special interest in the decision-making process and spent five years as an independent consultant helping to improve decision-making in big pharma. In 2012, he co-founded Captario AB with the mission to create a groundbreaking change in the pharma industry. Today, Captario works with one-third of the world’s largest pharma companies. Captario’s proprietary decision-analytics SaaS platform uses Monte Carlo simulation and BPMN modeling and simulation to enable robust and rapid decision-making in both drug development projects and portfolios.

“Captario is committed to working hand-in-hand with its customers to continuously evolve its offerings based on current and future market needs.”