# Partnering with Pharma R&D: From Pilot to Adoption

> Lessons from the DayOne 2026 cohort session in Basel on decision-making, evidence of value and the work needed to make pharma R&D partnerships succeed.

URL: https://www.ch-healthtech.com/insights/partnering-with-pharma-rd-from-pilot-to-adoption
Markdown: https://www.ch-healthtech.com/insights/partnering-with-pharma-rd-from-pilot-to-adoption.md
Published: 2026-09-15
Author: Christian Hein
Tags: industry/large-pharma, function/business-development, activity/partnership-alliance, activity/startup-advisory, leadership/scaling-growth, technology/artificial-intelligence

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Last week I spent a morning with the [**DayOne - Healthtech Innovation**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/dayone-healthtech-innovation/) 2026 cohort in Basel talking about something I have seen from both sides for years: **partnering with Pharma R&D.** The timing was good.

<Figure src="/images/insights/dayone-2026/session.jpg" alt="Presenting lessons on partnering with pharma R&D to the DayOne 2026 cohort, with the audience and presentation slide visible." caption="Discussing pharma R&D partnerships with the DayOne 2026 cohort in Basel, 7 September 2026." width={2184} height={1638} />

In a [Citi Research survey](https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3366863/china-embraces-ai-only-24-us-pharma-execs-bet-it-drug-making) of 50 US-based pharma R&D technology executives released last week, 72% said their organisations were scaling or had fully scaled AI. Only 24% expected AI to significantly improve drug success probability.

That gap gets to the heart of the issue. Pharma can be genuinely interested in a technology and still have no immediate urgency, budget or clear owner for it. A good pilot is not the same thing as adoption. Your internal champion may not be the budget owner. The scientist who sees the value may not be the person who decides whether it scales. And even if the technology works, IT, quality, privacy, legal, procurement and the annual budgeting cycle can still determine whether the partnership goes anywhere.

A few of the lessons I shared with the cohort:

- Know who actually scouts, funds, negotiates and owns the partnership
- Agree the KPI and comparator before the pilot starts
- Design for adoption and scale, not just technical validation
- Expect sponsors, priorities and structures to change
- Understand what truly creates value for pharma, not just why your technology is interesting

Pharma partnerships are hard. Done well, they can create enormous value. But they need to be designed for the organisation you are actually partnering with, not the one you wish existed.

Thanks to [**Ursula Costa**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ucosta/), [**Cécile Tardy-Srinivasan**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ceciletardy/) and the whole Day One team for having me. I pulled the main points from the session into the one-page summary attached.

## The one-page session summary

<a href="/images/insights/dayone-2026/partnering-with-pharma-rd-onepager.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Open the one-page summary at full size in a new tab">
  <Figure src="/images/insights/dayone-2026/partnering-with-pharma-rd-onepager.jpg" alt="Key insights for partnering with pharma R&D: pharma priorities, decision-making, partnership structure, adoption and scale. A text version is linked below." caption="Key insights for partnering with pharma R&D. Session summary, 7 September 2026." width={2481} height={3508} />
</a>

[Open the summary full size](https://www.ch-healthtech.com/images/insights/dayone-2026/partnering-with-pharma-rd-onepager.jpg) · <a href="/images/insights/dayone-2026/partnering-with-pharma-rd-onepager.jpg" download="partnering-with-pharma-rd-summary.jpg">Download the summary (JPG)</a> · [Read the summary as text](/images/insights/dayone-2026/partnering-with-pharma-rd-summary.txt)