Life sciences is amongst the most regulated and innovation-driven industries in the world. As this business sector is directly involved with the mental, physical, and emotional well-being of people, regulatory authorities require companies and service providers to comply with rules strictly.
Being innovative is the second most important thing for pharmaceutical or healthcare institutes. However, innovation requires research, and companies need investors for research. In other words, modern-day companies can only thrive with the help of strategic partnering, investments, and of course, technology.
As companies belonging to life sciences move towards digitalization, the consumption of virtual data rooms has increased rapidly. That’s because when it comes to the technology part, dataroom software has everything a pharma or healthcare company needs.
Today’s discussion is about dataroom software and its role in the life science industry. Here is a brief introduction to the data room software.
What Is A Virtual Data Room?
Virtual or electronic data room software is primarily a secure online document repository with other useful technologies for online communication, dealmaking, and project management.
Data room software is a certified, cloud-based data storage place where any type of business, professional, nonprofit organization, or government institute can safely store and manage their confidential corporate or personal documents.
Moreover, virtual data rooms are not simple repositories. They are a complete virtual collaboration platform where you can add your employees, investors, stakeholder, directors, advisors, and other concerned parties. They can access documents, share data, and communicate with each other on a single platform.
Data room software is also employed for project management, and this is arguably the biggest use case of this technology. Businesses from different industries such as the financial sector, oil and energy, information technology, investment banking, private equities, life sciences, etc. use VDRs for fundraising, IPOs (initial public offerings), investment portfolio management, clinical trials, mergers, acquisitions, strategic partnering, and joint ventures. Read more about data room for life sciences here.
Importance Of Virtual Data Rooms In Life Sciences
The life science industry can use data room software for different purposes, such as intellectual property management, fundraising, M&As, IPOs, biotech licensing, clinical trials, and regulatory communications.
Clinical Trials
R&D or medical device companies have a big responsibility to keep the confidential data of volunteers or patients safe. A single data leak can cost thousands or even millions in the form of lawsuits.
The reason why virtual data rooms are a better choice than other data repositories is the level of security they provide. Data room software not only gives you maximum security but also makes sure you have complete control over your data room.
Another good thing about the electronic data room is that it allows you to add all concerned parties to the VDR. For instance, you can add investors, patients, researchers, partners, and officials from regulatory authorities; this will make communication much easier and faster.
Partnering
A virtual data room opens multiple partnering opportunities for you simultaneously. That said, you can deal with various potential partners at the same time and decide which party would be a strategic fit.
All you have to do is create multiple data rooms for every potential partner, upload related documents, and give them access to the data as per your needs. You can easily answer any queries immediately, conduct meetings with them, annotate documents to add more clarity, and change document access whenever needed.
Most importantly, you can track which type of files or data investors mostly view and provide them with more information based on their interests.
Initial Public Offerings
Biotech companies require funds in massive amounts, and that’s why going public is a normal thing for such businesses. Raising capital for a company requires time and consistent efforts. The company has to answer queries from potential investors, give presentations, conduct meetings, and update all necessary documents regularly.
All of this can be very stressful for the company, but data room software can help biotech companies minimize that stress. A biotech company can store all required documents, such as AOA (article of association), licenses, financial statements, partnerships, tax records, etc., in the data room and add potential investors to give them access to these documents.
The best part is that documents can be updated easily and regularly, and communications can be kept on one platform.
IP Management
IP or intellectual properties are the most valuable assets for researchers, innovators, pharmaceutical companies, and R&D firms. Such companies can lose their competitive advantage and million-dollar investments if their intellectual properties fall into the wrong hands.
Using virtual data room software, science-based innovators and R&D companies can manage their portfolios easily and safely. They don’t have to worry about presenting data to potential partners or investors because VDR technologies make it impossible to steal important data.
For example, VDRs have the fence view mode feature that makes it impossible to photograph, screenshot, scan, edit, save, download, or print any document. Apart from that, virtual data rooms facilitate M&As, fundraising, IP licensing deals, and regulatory communications in the life sciences sector.
Top 5 Virtual Data Room Services For Life Sciences
Security is the primary concern for pharma, biotech, and R&D companies. Here are some most trusted virtual data rooms in life sciences.
- iDeals data rooms
- Firmex data rooms
- Merrill Datasite
- SecureDocs data rooms
- DealRoom
Final Words
The life sciences sector can benefit from virtual data rooms in so many ways. Companies can use data room software for partnering, fundraising, confidential data storage, clinical trials, mergers, acquisitions, IPOs, IP management, and more. Consider incorporating a virtual data room into your life sciences deals if you have not done it before.