Shionogi inc., a US subsidiary of Shionogi & Co. and a leading innovator in the pharmaceutical manufacturing space, required technical support with managing its data workload with cost control in a hosted environment. Jay Upchurch, Executive Vice President and CIO at SAS, discusses how the tech player provided the answer. Anindita Sinha, VP of Commercial Operations at Shionogi Inc., offers her first-hand experience of the partnership and the future she envisions as a result.
SAS, a leader in data and AI, has announced a new offering to its product portfolio – SAS Viya Essentials, a standard, secure deployment of select SAS Viya products on Microsoft Azure with SAS Managed Cloud Services. The innovative offering makes it easier for customers to access SAS’ data and AI software in a standardised, simplified way.
This development means users can skip the learning curve and deploy SAS without complex workloads or customisations quickly and easily – a 99.5% uptime SLA guaranteed. “At SAS, we believe in making AI accessible to everyone, no matter their industry or size,” commented Jay Upchurch, CIO at SAS. “And we know that a common struggle for companies is how to quickly maximise their AI investments to meet their corporate aspirations. That’s where SAS Viya Essentials comes in. It provides an easy-to-use way for customers to get the trusted answers they need in a fast, flexible and cost-effective way so they can stay ahead of their competition.”
Shionogi inc., a US subsidiary of Shionogi & Co. and a key player in the pharmaceutical manufacturing space, needed a trusted vendor to manage its data workload with cost control in a hosted environment and turned to SAS. “SAS Viya Essentials enables us to process larger data sets with speed and efficiency so we can continue to generate key insights, accelerate business success and build on our scientific legacy,” said Anindita Sinha, VP of Commercial Operations at Shionogi Inc.
The manufacturer has been harnessing the full potential of science to improve patients’ lives since 1878. Over the past six decades, Shionogi has discovered several novel antibiotics and medications for HIV and influenza. Today, the company is building on its scientific legacy by marketing an antibiotic for difficult-to-treat Gram-negative bacterial infections, developing investigational antivirals for COVID-19 prevention and treatment and, through its subsidiary, Qpex Biopharma, advancing a portfolio of antibiotics for resistant bacteria. Beyond infectious disease, the company pipeline includes clinical programs in rare disease, acute ischemic stroke and oncology.
Jay Upchurch, Executive Vice President and CIO at SAS, sheds light on the partnership and its innovative impact.
What were the technical challenges inherent in implementing the SAS solution with Shionogi Inc.?
The main challenge Shionogi was facing going into implementation was the incredible amount of data the company had. We were well-positioned to help it through this, since SAS is well-known for its ability to access, manage and analyse large amounts of data.
How did SAS work with Shionogi in implementing the solution?
We worked closely with Shionogi throughout the implementation. Our standard deployment process is robust and commits dedicated staffing to the project from start to finish, so we’re available for any needs throughout the whole process.
What future technical requirements does SAS foresee evolving over the life of the partnership?
We expect the amount of data Shionogi wants to analyse will continue to grow over time. We look forward to continuing our close working relationship with the team as they use the power of SAS to make data-driven decisions to meet their business goals.
Anindita Sinha, VP of Commercial Operations at Shionogi Inc. discusses her experience with SAS and the business benefits.
What impact has the rollout of the SAS solution had on Shionogi so far?
The most immediate impact has been within the analytics organisation. Teams are now able to run more complex analyses on data sets that were previously too large or demanding for our on-premises solution to handle efficiently. This increased speed and agility has enabled us to work more efficiently and, ultimately, to deliver insights to the business much faster.
How did you ‘sell’ the benefits of the SAS solution to Shionogi employees?
In many ways, the solution sold itself. With strong support from the analytics organisation, it was easy to communicate the benefits of achieving ‘faster time to insights’. One analogy I used compared our previous on-premises environment to an early human followed by an image of a robot to represent how a cloud-based solution like SAS Viya would move us light-years ahead in terms of technology and capability.
Where do you see the partnership with SAS taking Shionogi in the future?
We have embarked on a critical journey with SAS – one that positions us at the forefront of new technologies and advanced methods for processing large, complex data sets. As the healthcare landscape continues to grow in complexity, new data sources emerge every day. Each of these offers new opportunities to learn and innovate. To take full advantage of this environment, we need a strategic analytics partner who understands our evolving needs and can deliver solutions even before we realise we need them. That is the future I envision for our partnership with SAS.
