Marketing teams at technology companies are used to moving fast. Talk to a SaaS CMO, and they’ll likely tell you that perfection is the enemy of good. Some sectors, though, like the pharmaceutical industry, have to move slower.

That’s because any external communications around the product they market — prescription drugs — have to go through Medical, Legal, and Regulatory (MLR) reviews first to ensure any content around them is truthful, accurate, and balanced and complies with relevant regulations.

This can lead to delays for pharma marketing teams, and prevent them from releasing campaigns quickly and efficiently. Worse, it can potentially cost their companies millions of dollars annually, due to material-release delays.

That’s why more pharmaceutical companies are “making way for investments in AI/ML-based and technology-based solutions that can transform the review process into an automation-assisted and technology-enabled one,” Pharmaceutical Executive Magazine reports.

That includes Revisto, a startup created by a Top-5 Pharma Company in partnership with High Alpha Innovation.

We recently spoke with Revisto CEO Ferry Tamtoro to learn what led him to join the business as a founding team member, how the AI-powered solution will streamline and automate the MLR review and approval process, and what lies ahead for the company near term.

HAI: Tell us about your background. What other companies have you led? How did your work there impact your decision to join Revisto?

Ferry: I’ve spent more than two decades in the intersection of healthcare and technology, covering MedTech, pharma, digital health, and healthcare services. Prior to Revisto, I co-founded a digital health platform company serving pharma and MedTech firms.

My experience working with those organizations’ customers and understanding their pain points give me conviction that Revisto is solving an impactful problem for life science companies.

There’s been a big increase in the total number of drugs in the research and development pipeline for pharmas since the turn of the century. That makes it crucial for these companies to put out highly informative and personalized materials to healthcare providers and their patients in a timely and cost-effective manner.

We plan to help them do just that with Revisto.

HAI: Share your thoughts on meeting with our team and the founding role opportunity. What convinced you it was an ideal fit for you?

Ferry: High Alpha Innovation brings two very important things to the table for founders — ones that I knew early on in my interview process would strongly increase the chances of success for Revisto.

First is the company's relationships with corporate partners. They work closely with leaders at large enterprises they build companies with to really explore opportunities tied to notable problems they’ve faced and want to solve.

Second is the experienced team members at High Alpha Innovation who have founded, led, and grown companies of their own. It’s great to learn from other experienced former entrepreneurs who know what it’s like to bring a new solution to market.

HAI: What about the business model, industry, and/or audience tied to Revisto did you find most interesting when considering joining?

Ferry: Within the healthcare industry, specifically, I’ve always been convinced that pharmaceutical companies have a lot of potential application for technology, including artificial intelligence and automation.

Just like with Revisto, where we're focused on helping pharmas optimize the release of their promotional assets, which creates a win-win-win situation for all stakeholders involved in the release-approval and go-to-market processes:

• Pharma companies benefit by reducing the time it takes them to launch compliant marketing campaigns.
• Providers benefit from having compelling and accurate drug-related collateral they can share with patients.
• Patients can easily learn the benefits of newly launched medicines, thanks to well-crafted marketing materials.

The operational efficiencies created by Revisto ultimately create this positive ripple effect.

HAI: How does Revisto’s AI functionality better facilitate the MLR review process and help pharma marketers optimize their content?

Our software helps stakeholders in the promotional material creation and review process by leveraging AI to automatically identify relevant claims, provide content recommendations substantiated by sources, and enhance collaboration through a more focused review.

This results in less iterations and allows reviewers to focus their discussions on more critical areas.

For the business at large, this also means higher throughput with higher quality.

HAI: What has it been like to guide Revisto since its inception?

Ferry: In short, it's been exciting and rewarding! I’ve always loved the fast-paced nature of a startup, and working with Jaya Plmanabhan, my Co-founder and Chief Data Officer, in this area that I’m passionate about just adds to the fun.

In less than a year running the business, we’ve built and released the first version of our product and been able to see strong usage by our pharma customers.

It’s an honor to work with these companies to give them such a scalable platform that empowers them to create timely and accurate marketing communications and solve a problem that enables them to produce higher-quality work.

HAI: Revisto is ready to disrupt the pharma space. What have you been most proud of to date? What excites you about the future?

Ferry: As we’ve worked closely with our pharmaceutical customers, it’s become clear there are many opportunities for Revisto to help them further improve their pharma marketing effectiveness and get materials into the hands of patients and providers.

The best way for us to continue to help them is to stay focused on what we need to do to deliver immediate value for them. It can be tempting to pursue so many adjacent opportunities, but, at the end of the day, it’s really our team’s ability to execute for our customers that has been our greatest asset.

Their feedback will continue to help us refine the platform and ensure it continues to simplify and streamline their MLR review process.