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>> Welcome back to Vegas, baby.
Lisa Martin here with theCUBE.
We are live at Caesar's Forum covering Snowflake Summit 22.
This is day two of our wall to wall coverage
on theCUBE you won't want to miss.
We've got an exciting customer story
to talk to you about next with Novartis and Snowflake.
Please welcome two guests to theCUBE.
Loïc Giraud, Global head digital delivery, Novartis.
I hope I got the name right.
>> Yes. Hi, thank you. >> I did my best.
>> Absolutely.
>> Lisa: (laughs) Jesse Cugliotta also joins us.
Global Industry Lead,
Healthcare and Life Sciences at Snowflake.
Welcome with theCUBE, gentlemen.
>> Thank you for having us. Good morning.
>> So it was great to hear Novartis is a household word now,
especially with what's gone on in the last two years.
I had a chance to see the Keynote yesterday,
heard Novartis mention in terms of a massive outcome
that Snowflake is delivering that we're going to get to.
But Loic talk to us about Novartis global 500 organization.
You rank among the world's top companies
investing in R&D, the massive portfolio
and you're reaching nearly 800 million patients worldwide.
That's huge, but there's been a lot of change
in the healthcare and life sciences industry,
especially recently.
Talk to us about the industry landscape.
What are you seeing?
>> As you described, Novartis
is one of the top life science company in the world.
We are number three.
We operate in 150 countries,
and we have almost 120,000 employees.
Our purpose is actually to reimagine medicine
for the use of data science and technology
and to extend people's life.
And we really mean it.
I think, as you mentioned,
we treat eight or 9 million patient per year with our drugs.
We expect to treat more than a billion patients
in near time soon.
Over the last few years, especially during COVID,
our digital transformation help us
to accelerate the drug discovery
and then the commiseration of our drug to markets.
As it was mentioned in the Keynote yesterday,
we have actually been able to reduce our time to market.
It used to take us up to 12 years
and cost around 1.2 billion to discover
and commercialize drug.
And now we've actually use of technology like Snowflake,
we have been able to reduce by two to three years,
which ultimately is a benefit for our patients.
>> Absolutely.
Well, we're talking about life and death situations.
Talk about...
You mentioned Novartis wants to reimagine medicine.
What does that look like?
Where is data in that
and how is Snowflake an enabler of reimagining medicine?
>> So data is core for our asset,
is a core of enterprise process.
So if you look at our enterprise,
we are using data from the research, for drug development,
in manufacturing process,
and how do we market and sell our product
through HCPs and distribute it to reach our patients.
If you build through our digital transformation
we have created this integrated data ecosystem,
where Snowflake is a core component.
And through that ecosystem,
we are able to identify compounds and cohorts,
perform clinical trials,
and engage HCPs and HGOs
so that can prescribe drugs to serve our patient needs.
>> Jesse, let's bring you into the conversation.
Snowflake recently launched its healthcare
and life sciences data cloud.
I believe that was back in March.
>> It was. >> Just a couple of months ago.
Talk to us about the vertical focus.
Talk to us about what this healthcare
and life sciences data cloud
is aiming to help customers like Novartis achieve.
>> Well, as you mentioned there,
Snowflake has made a real pivot to kind of focus
on the various different industries
that we serve in a new way.
I think historically, we've been engaged in really,
all of the industries across the major sectors
where we participate today.
But historically we've been often engaging
with the office of IT.
And there was a recognition as a company
that we really need to be able to better speak the language
of our customers in with our respective industries.
So the entire organization has really made a pivot
to start to build that capability internally.
That's part of the team that I support here at Snowflake.
And with respect to healthcare and life sciences,
that means being able to solve some of the challenges
that Loic was just speaking about.
In particular, we're seeing the industry evolve
in a number of ways.
You bring up clinical research in the time that it takes
to actually bring a drug to market.
This is a big one that's really changed a lot
over the last couple of years.
Some of the reasons are obvious
and other ones are somewhat opportunistic.
When we looked at what it takes to get a drug to market,
there's several stages of clinical research
that have to be participated in,
and this can often take years.
What we saw in the last couple of years,
is that all of a sudden,
patients didn't want to physically participate
in those anymore,
because there was fear of potential infection
and being in a healthcare facility.
So the entire industry realized that it needed to change
in terms of way that it would engage with patients
in that context.
And we're now seeing this concept
of decentralized clinical research.
And with that,
becomes the need to potentially involve
many different types of organizations
beyond the traditional pharma, their research partners,
but we're starting to see organizations
like retail pharmacies, like big box retailers,
who have either healthcare delivery
or pharmaceutical arms actually get involved in the process.
And of course, one of the core things that happens here
is that everyone needs a better way to collaborate
and share data amongst one another.
So bringing this back to your original question,
this concept of being able to do exactly that is core
to the healthcare and the life sciences data cloud.
To be able to collaborate and share data
amongst those different types of organizations.
>> Collaboration and data sharing.
It seems to me to be a differentiator for Snowflake,
in terms of being able to deliver secure,
governed powerful analytics and data sharing
to customers, partners to the ecosystem.
You mentioned an example of the ecosystem there
and how impactful to patients' lives,
that collaboration and data sharing can be.
>> That's absolutely right.
It's something that if you think about
all of the major challenges that the industry has had
historically, whether it is high costs,
whether it are health inequities,
whether it is physicians practicing defensive medicine
or repeat testing,
what's core to each one of these things
is kind of the inability to adequate collaborate
and share data amongst all of the different players.
So the industry has been waiting for the capability
or some sort of solution to be able to do this,
I think for a long, long time.
And this is probably one of the most exciting parts
of the conversations that we have with our customers,
is when they realize that this is possible.
And not only that it's possible within our platform,
but that most of the organizations that they work with today
are also Snowflake customers.
So they realize that everyone's already here.
It's just a matter of who else can we work with
and how do we get started?
>> Join the party. >> Exactly.
>> Loic talk to us about Novartis's data journey.
I know you guys have been,
I believe using Snowflake since 2017 pre pandemic.
But you had a largely on-premises infrastructure.
Talk to us about the decision of Novartis
to go to the cloud, do it securely
and why you chose to partner with Snowflake.
>> So when we started our journey in 2018,
I think the ambition that our CEO,
was to transform all enterprise processes
for the use of digital tech.
And at the core of this digital tech is data foundation.
So we started with a large program called Formula One,
which aim to integrate all our internal
and external data asset into an integrated platform.
And for that, I think we've built this multicloud
and best upgrade platform,
where Snowflake is a core component.
And we've been able to integrate almost 1,000 data asset,
internal and external for the platform
to be able to accelerate the use of data
to create insight for our users.
In that transformation, we've realized that Snowflake
could be a core component because of the scalability
and the performance with large dataset.
And moreover, when Snowflake started
to actually open collaboration for their marketplace,
we've been able to integrate new data set
that are publicly available at the place
that we could not do on ourself, on our own.
So that is a core component of what we are trying to do.
>> Yeah, and I think that's a great example
of really what we're talking about here is that,
he's mentioning that they're going out to our marketplace
to be able to integrate data more easily
with some of the vendors there.
And that is kind of this concept of the healthcare
and life sciences data cloud realized,
where all of a sudden,
acquiring and bringing data in
and making it ready for analysis becomes much faster,
much easier.
We continually see more and more vendors coming to us
saying, I get it now, I want in.
Who else can I work with in this space?
So I think that's a perfect example
of how this starts to become real for folks.
>> Well, it sounds like the marketplace
has been an enabler, Loic, of the expansion of use cases.
You've grown this beyond drug development.
I read that you're developing new products and services
for healthcare providers to personalize treatments
for patients, which we all are demanding patients.
We want that personalized care.
But talk about the marketplace as a facilitator
of those expanding use cases that Snowflake is powering.
>> Yes. That's right.
I mean we have currently almost 65 use cases in production
and we are in advanced progress for over 200 use cases
and they go across all our business sector.
So if you look at drug development,
we are monitoring our clinical trials using Snowflake.
If you look at our omnichannel marketing,
we are looking at personalization of information
with our HCPs and HGOs using snowflake.
If you look at our manufacturing process,
we are looking at yet management,
freight optimization, inventory, insight.
So almost across all the industry sectors that we have,
I think we are using the platforms
to be able to deliver faster information to our users.
>> And that's what we all want. Faster information.
I think in the pandemic
we learned that access to real time data in every industry
wasn't a nice to have.
That was a- >> Necessity.
>> Absolute necessity. >> Yeah.
>> And made the difference
for companies that survived and thrived
and those that didn't.
That's something that we learned.
But we also learned
that the volume of data just continues to proliferate.
Loic, you've been in the industry a couple of decades.
What do you see?
And you've got, obviously this great foundation now
with Snowflake.
You've got 65 use cases you said in production.
What's the future of the data culture
in healthcare and life sciences from your perspective?
>> So my perspective.
It is time now
we give the access to our business technologies
to be able to be self-sufficient using digital product.
We need to consumerize digital technology
so they can be self-sufficient.
The amount of problems that we have to solve,
and we can now solve with new technology
has never been there.
And I think where in the past, where in the next few years
that you will see an accelerated generation of insight
and an accelerated process of medicine
by empowering the business technologies
to use a technology that like Snowflake and over progress.
>> What are your thoughts Loic, of some of the,
obviously a lot of news coming out yesterday from Snowflake,
we mentioned standing room only in the Keynote.
This I believe is north of 10,000 attendees.
People are ready to engage in person with Snowflake,
but some of the news coming out, what is your perspective?
You've been a partner of theirs for a while.
What do you see from Snowflake in terms of the news,
the volume of customers it's adding, all that good stuff?
>> I must say I was blown away yesterday
when Frank was talking about the ramp up of customers
using Snowflake.
But also, and I think in Benoit and Christian,
and they talk about the innovation.
When you look at native application
or you look at hybrid tables, we saw a thing there.
And the expansion of the marketplace
by monetization application,
that is something that is going to accelerate the expansion,
not only on the company,
but the integration and the utilization of customers.
And to Jesse's point, I think that it is key
that people collaborate using the platform.
I think we want to collaborate with suppliers and providers
and they want to collaborate with us.
But we want to have a neutral environment
where we can do that.
And Snowflake can be that environment.
>> And do it securely, right?
Security is absolutely- >> Of course.
I mean that's really table stake for this industry.
And I think the point that you just made Loic,
is very important, is that,
the biggest question that we're often asked by our customers
is who else is a customer within this industry
that I can collaborate with?
I think as Loic here will attest to,
one of the challenges within life sciences in particular
is that it is a highly regulated industry.
It is a highly competitive industry,
and folks are very sensitive about referenceability.
So about things like logo usage.
So to give some ideas here,
people often have no idea that we're working
with 28 of the top 50 global pharma today,
working with seven of the top 12
global medical device companies today.
The largest CROs, the largest distributors.
So when I say that the party is here, they really are.
And that's why we're so excited to have events like these,
'cause people can physically introduce themselves
to one another and meet, and actually start to engage
in some of these more collaborative discussions
that they've been waiting for.
>> Jesse, what's been some of the feedback
that you've heard the last couple of days
on the healthcare and life sciences data cloud?
You've obviously finally gotten back
to engaging with customers in person.
But what are some of the things,
feed on this street have said that you've thought,
we made the absolute right decision on this pivot?
>> Yeah, well I think some of it speaks
to the the point I was just speaking about,
is that they had no idea
that so many of their peers
were actually working with Snowflake already
and that how mature their implementations
have actually been.
The other thing that folks are realizing is that,
a lot of the technologies that serve this ecosystem,
whether they're in the health tech space,
whether they're clinical management or commercial engagement
or supply chain planning technologies,
those companies are also now pivoting to Snowflake,
where they're either building a part
or the entirety of their platform on top of ours.
So it offers this great way to start to collaborate
with the ecosystem through some of those capabilities
that we spoke about.
And that's driving new use cases in commercial,
in supply chain, in pharmacovigilance,
in clinical operations.
>> Well, I think you just sum up beautifully
why the theme of this conference
is the world of data collaboration.
>> Yes, absolutely.
>> The potential there,
that Snowflake is unleashing to the world
is I think is what's captivating to me.
That you just scratch on the surface
about connecting and facilitating this collaboration
and this data sharing in a secure way across industries.
Loic, last question for you.
Take us home with what is next for Novartis.
You've done a tremendous amount of digitalization.
65 use cases in production with Snowflake.
What's next for the company?
>> See, I think that in next year's to come,
open collaboration with the ecosystem,
but also personalization.
If you look at digital medicine
and access to patient's informations,
I think this is probably the next revolution
that we are entering into.
>> Excellent.
And of course those demanding patients
aren't going to want anything slower or less information.
Guys, thank you for joining me on the program
talking about the Novartis-Snowflake collaboration.
The partnership, the outcomes that you're achieving
and how this is really dramatically impacting the lives
of hundreds of millions of people.
We appreciate your time and your insights.
>> Thank you for having us. This was fun.
>> My pleasure. >> Thank you.
>> For my guests, I'm Lisa Martin.
You're watching theCUBE.
This is live from Las Vegas,
day two of our coverage of Snowflake Summit 22.
I'll be right back with my next guest, so stick around.
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