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Stéphane Wolf

Why Pharma Should Not Develop Digital Health Applications

Digital health promises faster iteration, closer patient engagement, and continuous improvement—yet inside pharma, software runs into a different reality: long, linear R&D cycles, compliance-heavy governance, and blockbuster economics that don’t fit app-scale revenues. The result is a cultural and structural mismatch: promising pilots stall, value is unclear, and momentum fades when champions move on.

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Digital health should be seen as more than just a "nice to have".

Software thrives on speed: MVPs, user feedback, weekly releases. Pharma is built for safety over decades, with linear milestones and risk controls tuned for powerful drugs—not agile apps. Expertise in drug regulation doesn’t automatically translate to SaMD or MDR, where usability, cybersecurity, and continuous change are central. Add blockbuster-scale expectations, scarce digital talent, and go-to-market models that differ country by country, and internal builds struggle to reach product–market fit or scale. A smarter path emerges: keep medicines at the core, and partner with digital specialists who can design, ship, and evolve around-the-pill solutions—while preserving clinical integrity and commercial focus.

When Cultures Collide:
Why Building Internally Often Fails

What you’ll learn

Why mismatched development tempos and risk cultures make internal app building inefficient
How drug-regulatory expertise differs from SaMD/MDR requirements in usability, security, and continuous improvement
Why blockbuster economics and unclear value propositions undermine long-term commitment to apps
Where talent, go-to-market, and country-specific compliance gaps derail scaling efforts
How partner-led models (clear alignment, autonomy, outcomes proof) turn around-the-pill solutions into real impact

Stéphane Wolf is the Global Head of Value – Eye Health at Boehringer Ingelheim. He has been working in the Ophthalmology field for more than ten years. Stéphane has 25+ years of experience in pharmaceuticals in several disease areas such as neuroscience and dermatology, various functions including marketing and sales, and several geographies. Over the past five years, he has been focusing on bringing solutions beyond drugs to people with visual impairment by using transformative technologies to improve patient outcomes and support patients in their daily activities. Stéphane holds an MBA from London Business School and Columbia Business School. He is a member of the board of the “Apfelschule,” which is a Swiss not-for-profit organization focusing on making technologies accessible to patients with visual impairment.