Build vs. Buy in Pharma AI: Why Strategic Partnerships Surpass In-House Builds

Posted on: September 15th 2025 

Imagine a leading pharmaceutical team, eager to harness AI for drug discovery. Months are spent building an in-house solution, yet six months later, the pilot struggles to deliver results. The AI clashes with complex workflows, AI operationalization stalls, regulatory bottlenecks slow progress, and the promise of faster clinical trials feels distant.

Behind closed doors, many pharmaceutical leaders face the same hurdles. According to a recent MIT study, a staggering 95% of AI pilots across industries fail to deliver measurable ROI. In the pharmaceutical world, where workflows are intricate and compliance demands are strict, and governance and traceability are non-negotiable, attempting to “build in-house” often leads to wasted resources, delayed outcomes, and missed opportunities.

In this blog, we explore why “buying” through a trusted partner like Straive is often smarter than “building” and how our responsible AI and data curation and enrichment solutions drive tangible outcomes.

The Challenge of Building AI In-House

Pharma leaders are under constant pressure to innovate faster, and building AI in pharmaceuticals in-house often feels like the safest route. It promises control, customization, and long-term savings. But in practice, the path to success is far narrower than it appears.

According to McKinsey, bringing a new drug to market typically takes around 10 years and consumes one-fifth of biopharma revenue. R&D spending is expected to reach $260 billion in 2023. 

With such high stakes, internal AI projects struggle to keep pace with the complexity of clinical trials, regulatory submissions, and global compliance. 

Why? Because building AI internally means taking on challenges that extend far beyond algorithms:

• Complex Workflows → Pharma processes are highly regulated and data-heavy. Custom builds rarely integrate seamlessly.
• High Failure Rates → The majority of pilots stall before scaling, draining budgets and timelines.
• Integration Barriers → Legacy systems, fragmented data, and compliance hurdles slow progress.
• Talent and Cost Gaps → With AI talent scarce and expensive, many builds collapse before proving value.

Building in-house frequently results in pilots that stall before production. For leaders shaping the future of AI in life sciences, this risk makes the buy vs. build debate more urgent than ever.

Why “Buy” through Strategic Partnerships Works

When it comes to scaling Pharma AI strategy, partnerships consistently outperform in-house builds. Specialized AI vendors bring domain knowledge, proven frameworks, and compliance expertise that internal teams struggle to replicate. 

The result is faster execution, lower risk, and measurable impact.

• Speed to Value → Strategic partners move pilots into production rapidly by leveraging curated biomedical datasets, pre-tested pipelines, and scalable AI platforms.
• Depth of Expertise → Industry-focused vendors combine engineering depth with domain-trained models, understanding pharma nuances from trial data to regulatory filings.
• Built-In Compliance → Partner solutions embed responsible AI, governance, and traceability, reducing non-compliance risks and regulatory delays.
• Measurable Outcomes → Partnerships deliver enterprise-scale impact by orchestrating AI across workflows, shortening time to market, and driving quantifiable ROI.

At Straive, we turn partnerships’ promises into measurable impact. Through rapid prototyping, full-stack AI implementation, and trusted deployment, we help pharmaceutical innovators efficiently move AI from pilot to production, delivering results across drug discovery, clinical trials, regulatory submissions, and commercial operations.

Build vs. Buy in Action – How Straive Transforms Pharma AI

Every pharma leader wants AI that delivers real-world impact; not another stalled pilot. The question is: how can you move from experiments to scalable results? 

That’s the turning point where AI in pharma becomes successful—through the right approach and the right partner. What Does Success Look Like with Straive?

• Fast Prototyping: Validate high-impact ideas rapidly. Straive helps pharma teams launch AI models for drug discovery and clinical trials in just weeks—meaning less guesswork, more results.
• End-to-End Implementation: Go beyond isolated pilots. Straive delivers Pharma AI solutions across research, trial operations, regulatory filing, and commercialization—right from the start.
• Reliable Deployment: Launch with confidence. Straive ensures data accuracy, regulatory compliance, and scalability so your innovations withstand scrutiny from every angle.
• Smart Clinical Trials: Use AI-native automation to reduce recruitment timelines, enhance cohort quality, and minimize trial data mismatches, speeding insights and effectiveness.
• AI-Powered Content & Analytics: From multilingual translations tailored for clinical publications to GenAI-powered commercial content, Straive delivers precise, scalable, and cost-efficient content systems.
• Secure Data Anonymization: With solutions like AInonymize, Straive ensures patient data is both usable and safe—critical for clinical data sharing and privacy compliance.

Every pharma leader knows the goal isn’t just to launch AI pilots; it’s to scale them. The real question is: what enables AI in pharma to go from concept to enterprise-grade impact? Straive’s proven model provides the answer.

How Straive Builds Scale for Pharma

Launching an AI pilot is easy. Scaling it across pharma is the real challenge. Straive’s AI-native pharma framework provides the answer. Our five-pillar model turns pilots into production and tracks measurable impact from day one.

• Unified Data – Seamlessly integrates clinical, regulatory, and commercial data with legacy systems, creating a single source of truth for AI operationalization.
• Governance & Explainability – Embeds responsible AI practices with governance, traceability, and regulator-ready models that deliver auditable, defensible outputs.
• Rapid Validation – Uses domain-trained biomedical datasets and curated pipelines to reach up to 90% accuracy, enabling proof-of-concept in weeks.
• Scalable Deployment – Cloud-ready, enterprise-grade architecture ensures validated pilots scale globally while maintaining compliance and performance.
• Domain Strengths – From secure data anonymization to multilingual GenAI-driven content and advanced orchestration, Straive has enabled pharma leaders to cut prep time by 35%, boost sales workflows by 50%, and achieve 95% higher-quality outputs.

With these pillars, leaders move past pilot failures, achieve clear ROI, and unlock sustainable growth through enterprise-scale AI in pharma.

Proof of Impact: Straive’s Pharma AI at Work

AI in pharma is only valuable when it delivers measurable results. Straive’s Pharma AI solutions are already powering real-world outcomes—cutting costs, saving time, and improving compliance.

Case 1: Large Data Transformation

• Centralized data and digital platforms for a global MedTech leader.
• Reduced time-to-insight for critical innovations in surgery.
• Built an end-to-end Data Value Chain, from collection to enriched consumption of insights.

Case 2: Product Engineering & Support

• Partnered with the most extensive healthcare data & ranking provider.
• Developed data-driven revenue solutions for hospitals and HCPs.
• Delivered full-stack AI/ML product design, technology, and deployment across the US and India.

Case 3: AI/GenAI Solutions

• Built an agent-driven analysis solution, compressing workflows by 30%.
• Applied domain-specific LLMs with multi-tier QA to minimize false negatives.
• Deployed GenAI solutions replicating complex real-world processes.

Why Straive Delivers on the “Buy” Advantage in Pharma AI?

From New York to Singapore, Straive has been transforming businesses with AI—delivering over 100 successful projects worldwide. In pharma, where time, compliance, and results matter most, building in-house often falls short. 

That’s why leading companies choose Straive: not as a vendor, but as a strategic partner that turns complex challenges into measurable outcomes.

Global Reach ➔ 19 delivery centers and 18,000+ professionals give Straive the scale and reach to deliver anywhere.

Proven ROI ➔ Straive’s AI solutions consistently show measurable returns—scaling operations, accelerating innovation, and reducing pilot failures.

Pharma Expertise ➔ From drug discovery to trials, compliance, and patient engagement, Straive brings deep expertise in pharmaceutical AI solutions.

True Partnership ➔ We co-create with clients, combining domain depth and AI-first design to deliver scalable, compliant outcomes.

About the Author

Santosh Shevade

Santosh Shevade is a Principal Data Consultant at Gramener – A Straive Company. With deep expertise in healthcare strategy, digital health, and clinical development and operations, he has supported nearly 50 clinical development programs across all clinical phases. His experience spans advanced analytics solution design for pharmaceutical companies, mHealth implementation, and AI applications in healthcare. Previously at Novartis and Johnson & Johnson, Santosh led global clinical development teams and streamlined data review processes for major regulatory submissions. A certified MBTI trainer and leadership coach, he serves as visiting faculty at ISB Hyderabad and Welingkar Institute, focusing on healthcare technology innovation and biopharma strategy.