Industry data estimates that by 2026, first-time biotech launches will outnumber those from established companies by more than two to one. For many emerging biotechs, preparing for launch means building essential content workflows. The quality and compliance of the foundation you lay for your content now — including medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) review processes — enables your organization to scale more efficiently in the future.
1. Fast-track review and approval workflows
Emerging biotechs commonly use email and spreadsheets as a starting point to manage MLR reviews and approvals. These systems are highly manual and time-consuming, and it’s easy to lose track of where an asset stands in the review process. The result: a drain on your organization’s limited resources and increased compliance risks.
Instead, consider automating these cycles through a dedicated MLR review system. With review and approval tracked in one place, your stakeholders manage approval queues and gain visibility into content moving down the pipeline. Meanwhile, you can quickly identify and address any bottlenecks in the process. Organizations with streamlined MLR processes in Veeva PromoMats report a 57% reduction in review cycle times and a 55% reduction in review meeting duration.
Speeding up workflows through automation is essential for staying on track with launch timelines. However, moving too quickly without prioritizing compliance leads to costly mistakes. In 2023, life sciences companies in the U.S. paid roughly $1.8 billion to settle False Claims Act violations and off-label promotions. The right foundation for MLR review and approval increases speed and efficiency while reducing the risk of fines. Along with a clear chain of custody and automated audit trails, Veeva PromoMats users reported a 25% reduction in time spent on compliance procedures.
“By using a core technology solution, we have a single source of truth for approved content and the ability to flex and optimize our MLR workflows as the company evolves.”
– Martin Boyle, Senior Director of Field and Marketing Operations, Regeneron
2. Simplify content development and keep operations agile
As you navigate peak content volumes and aggressive deadlines during launch, there’s no room for delays. Manual, repetitive tasks — such as tagging and anchoring claims to supporting references — slow your organization down and introduce human error. By contrast, modern claims management automates repetitive processes, establishes clear audit trails, and enhances traceability.
Use modern claims management to optimize your content operations by automatically tagging and linking materials to approved claims. And when you set up a central claims library, your stakeholders gain access to standardized language, improved transparency, and accurate documentation.
Organizations that have implemented modern claims management report:
- Faster time to approval by utilizing pre-approved claims
- Reduced time and budget spent on creating and linking/annotating references on reused content
- Improved quality of MLR submissions and increased confidence in review teams
- A foundation ready for future content expansion
“80% of our claims are now linked automatically. This automation has significantly cut down manual linking, which used to take 10 minutes per claim, and now constitutes only about 20% of the overall process.”
– Senior Marketing Director, Emerging Biotech
3. Locate, manage, and repurpose materials easily and efficiently
The life sciences industry maintains over 300,000 types of content, which leads to inconsistent naming conventions within individual organizations. These inconsistencies lead to duplicative, hard-to-understand content types that slow content production. Without a standard taxonomy, growing organizations struggle to find, manage, and repurpose content easily and efficiently. As you build your compliant content foundation, get ahead of these challenges by adopting a standard taxonomy from the start. During launch, a structured taxonomy accelerates MLR review and enhances compliance by improving consistency and reducing duplication across content.
To help organizations quickly produce and access high-quality, relevant data and materials, Veeva announced a freely open and available Commercial Content Kernel for Life Sciences. It offers standardized content hierarchy, classification, and description that improves content organization and delivery and creates efficiencies for stakeholders, especially MLR teams. It’s also an important preparatory step for easier integrations, including adding AI applications.
To further enhance the efficiency and compliance of MLR processes, Veeva is launching MLR Bot in late 2025. Sign up for updates and early access to explore the potential of AI in MLR review.
