Beyond Data Lakes: Why Medical Affairs Intelligence Is Entering an Orchestration Era

Published 5 August 2026

Author(s): Nuno Santana

For much of the last decade, the prevailing assumption in life-sciences technology has been clear: the more proprietary data a platform owns, the more defensible its value proposition becomes.

That assumption has been commercially powerful for good reason. Prescription data, claims, patient journeys, formulary information, healthcare-provider networks, longitudinal real-world datasets and commercial activity signals can be difficult to obtain, expensive to license and challenging to operationalize. When those assets are high quality and fit a defined decision, they can materially improve market understanding, evidence generation, access planning and lifecycle management.

Medical Affairs should continue to value them accordingly.