Doing Data Science for the Big Pharma – DataHeroes Podcast #2

In the second DataHeroes podcast, a podcast about data and the way businesses change through it, Pavel Dolezal, CEO of Keboola, discusses the future impact of data on healthcare with serial entrepreneur Petr Bartos, the founder and partner at Cogvio.

After partnering with another Czech serial entrepreneur Tomas Cupr, Petr co-founded several business-to-consumer startups, most notably Slevomat, one of the most profitable digital ventures in Europe. It is the largest daily deal and bulk discount website in the Czech Republic, offering great activities, travel, etc. Slevomat has been hugely successful in fighting off Groupon, an American worldwide e-commerce marketplace. Having won the fight in six countries, they stayed dominant on those markets and were eventually acquired by Secret Escapes, an exclusive members only travel club, in 2017.

Interestingly enough, Petr has no background in information technology whatsoever. He started studying to become a doctor but later came to realize it wasn’t the right path for him. He dropped out of school to pursue his passion for building businesses.

His latest project Cogvio gave him an opportunity to revisit his roots. It focuses on helping pharmaceutical companies through data. In the podcast Petr explains what makes the pharmaceutical industry a truly compelling market for such services. Despite their size and considerable resources, his clients actually lag behind in innovations and the use of new technologies. Pavel and Petr found the situation comparable to the world of e-commerce ten years ago.

Pharmaceutical companies, as Petr sees it, are eager to innovate but do so very inefficiently. And that’s where Cogvio comes in. They assist healthcare companies with innovation through data.

Cogvio started its mission by addressing the issue of drug prices. The area is much less regulated than clinical trials and other aspects of the pharmaceutical industry. However, drug pricing has sufficiently well-defined data sources and the clearest business impact.

Apart from pricing, Cogvio also takes on the issues of privacy and data sharing. They make sure patient data is used effectively to prolong life and improve its quality. Healthcare coupled with data is a topic of great interest to many of us. If you want to learn more, make sure to listen to the second episode of the DataHeroes podcast on iTunes or Spotify.

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