A global leader in the making: DDi

‘DDi aims to become a clinical informatics and analytics leader in the next three years.’

DDi (Drug Development Informatics) is a prominent Technology partner to the Life Sciences industry. DDi has built its solution competency with a unique blend of functional and domain expertise to serve the technology needs of global clients. It provides smarter technology for Clinical Development, Regulatory and Enterprise domains by providing innovative technology products and solutions for the Life Science organizations of various sizes. The customer base includes organizations from Top 50 global pharma companies to small & mid-size biotechnology, medical device companies as well as academic/ research institutes. DDi is a Makro Company.

Founded in 2009, the company is headquartered at Princeton (New Jersey), with offices in London, India and Singapore.
In conversation with the Key Executive

Why was the company set up? How did you select the vertical and decide to be a part of the global platform?
Makro Group has been serving Pharma & Life Science Industry globally for over two decades. The Life Science industry is going through a transformation in their R&D practices. R&D is all about data and companies need innovative IT systems and tools to manage different areas of “R” and “D” to bring the costs down. Observing this technology need, DDi was formed to focus in this specialized area. Usually, the approach starts with understanding the challenges of the market or consumer. A proper analysis is carried out to bring the R&D & IT needs for our IT solutions and products. We have to evaluate people, process, systems and data required to fulfill R&D and IT needs so that business objectives are delivered.

Tell us about your first product that was launched.
In the last six to seven years, life science companies have been integrating their clinical trial data and centralizing so that meaningful insights are derived holistically. During this initial phase of the paradigm shift, DDi began its clinical technology journey with mEDC-(Electronic Data Capture Tool). Our EDC tool helped the trial system from traditional set-up to easy-to-use process through quick and efficient data collection right at the source more efficiently.

How successful was your first project roll on? Share the experience.
Very few of us then had come up with right technical approach to optimize the clinical data capture. In that initial stage DDi was awarded a Project by one of the World’s Top Pharma Companies. The intuitive technology along with our experience and legacy of consulting and services in this industry had helped us gain this project. It was an important milestone for DDi’s growth.

What kind of mixed responses have you received from your consumers over the years? How have they motivated you to shape your offerings/grow the company?
We always ensure we get constant feedback from clients as this helps in product improvement and to keep our products relevant.

What were the grounds on which you have expanded your company and its offerings over the years?
By thinking innovatively, focusing on industry challenges and utilizing functional depth well and by bringing “data costs per patient” significantly down

What challenges did you face in your initial years?
Our IT services & e-clinical products may already fulfill market requirement but with ever changing technology & data, the need to re-evaluate the R&D & IT needs always exists. There should be proper mechanism to have greater collaboration between internal & external stakeholders to establish clear view and common goal. A comprehensive benefit analysis based on pre-defined metrics provided us greater clarity. Market trends helped our product requirements and subsequently those product requirements create technology needs.

How big is your organization today?
We are global now with presence in multiple countries and touching 100 resources.

Are there any trigger factors/events/individuals that have played key roles in shaping your organization’s road map?
Clinical projects are highly cross-functional and faster the data moves across the functions, the informed and quicker decisions can be done by a company as a whole. In all this, “timing” is key. With our technology clients were able to find this important lag and took measures with sites to ensure data entry happens on time leading to faster completion of tasks, hence driving cost savings to client as well in this process.

What drives/inspires you to excel in your field of business?
We cater to the industry that deals with Patients. So we strive to endow clients with a safe, timely and quality solutions & products without any compromise.

How do you and your company contribute to the global IT platform and society at large?
Our solutions resolve around to collect data coming from multiple systems. These pose great challenges of maintaining data integrity and quality. Right decisions can only be taken on the basis of right data.Our technology helps to increase efficiency by eliminating redundant systems and processes, and decrease project risks by improving the quality of data collection.

What do you feel fresher’s and peers need to keep in mind to figure out a place for themselves in today’s marketplace?
Be technologically competent and be adaptive.

Do you have any new products ready to be/getting ready to be rolled out into the market?
TULA New Versions and Regulatory Suite (VISU & MPDsmart).

Where do you see you and your company a couple of years from now?
DDi’s sole focus is on clinical development and Regulatory areas. Other strategy is to expand the current products into other geographical territories. We aim to be Market Leader in the Products & Solutions that we develop and market.

“Breaking away from conventional thinking process, we have developed innovative solutions that facilitate Real-time decision making, Risk Management, Oversight/Governance, Supply Management Optimization, and key analytics all accomplished in  integrated platform.”

“Our Risk & Oversight Solution has been designed to allow organizations to thrive by providing the capability to Identify and minimize the risk of something going wrong, by providing appropriate oversight to anticipate problems with ability and knowledge to deal with issues.”

www.ddismart.com