Journal Article

Driving health transformation: big pharma’s innovation labs revolution

Sánchez, Blanca, Peralta, Galo

2025

Overview

Background Large pharmaceutical companies are evolving their innovation strategies, moving from closed R&D models towards open, collaborative ecosystems. Innovation labs have emerged as key organizational infrastructures in this shift, designed to accelerate the development, validation and adoption of new healthcare solutions. However, a systematic understanding of industry-led innovation labs remains limited. Objective This study aims to comprehensively characterize the structure, strategic focus, activities and outputs of innovation labs promoted by major pharmaceutical companies, and to identify patterns and divergences across different organizational models. Methods We conducted a structured literature review in PubMed and an original mapping of innovation labs established by the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies. Data were collected from peer-reviewed publications, official corporate reports and grey literature. Innovation labs were analyzed according to their digital orientation, geographical structure (unicentric versus multicentric), activity domains, stakeholder engagement and innovation outputs. Results A total of 102 innovation centres promoted by 14 pharmaceutical companies were included. Most centres demonstrated a strong digital focus, particularly on digital health solutions and remote patient monitoring. Collaboration activities were widely reported (98%), mainly involving universities (92%) and other industries (65%). Support for entrepreneurship was a major theme, reflected in mentoring programs (87%), co-development opportunities (85%) and access to funding (40%). A comparative analysis revealed that multicentric initiatives were significantly more engaged in external collaborations, entrepreneurship promotion and educational activities, and produced higher rates of patents and spin-offs compared with unicentric initiatives. However, unicentric labs were more associated with internal capacity building and early-stage clinical research. Conclusions Pharmaceutical innovation labs are pivotal in healthcare transformation, integrating scientific, technological and entrepreneurial approaches. Multicentric and unicentric models offer complementary strengths: multicentric hubs enhance external engagement and scalability, while unicentric labs foster organizational learning and focused research. Understanding and strategically balancing both models could maximize the impact of pharmaceutical innovation infrastructures. Future research should explore longitudinal impacts, patient involvement and the interaction of innovation labs with venture capital ecosystems and regulatory frameworks.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Adoption of innovations / Business / Capacity building approach / Capacity development / Case studies / Clinical outcomes / Clinical research / Collaboration / Colleges & universities / Companies / Comparative analysis / Cooperative Behavior / Corporate learning / Delivery of Health Care / Diffusion of Innovation / Digital health / Digital transformation / Drug development / Drug Industry - organization & administration / Educational activities / Entrepreneurship / Experimental spaces / Grey literature / Health Administration / Health care / Health care delivery / Health care reform / Health Policy / Health promotion / Health services / Health Services Research / Healthcare innovation / Healthcare transformation / Hospital-based innovation / Humans / Infrastructure / Initiatives / Innovation ecosystems / Innovation labs / Innovations / Inventions / Laboratories / Literature reviews / Mapping / Medical innovations / Medical research / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Medicine, Experimental / Mentors / Models, Organizational / Organization development / Organizational Innovation / Organizational learning / Organizational models / Organizational research / Patient participation / Patients / Pharmaceutical industry / Pharmaceutical research / Pharmaceuticals / Product development / Public Health / R & D/Technology Policy / R&D / Remote monitoring / Research & development / Revolutions / Technological change / Transformation / Transformations (mathematics) / Venture capital