GSK: From Pilot Projects to Enterprise Adoption

on-demand webinar

GSK: From Pilot Projects to Enterprise Adoption

Posit teamed up with GSK's Data Science Innovation and Engineering team to discuss how GSK, a leading pharmaceutical company, transformed its biostatistics toolkit by embracing R.

GSK's R Journey from pilot projects to enterprise adoption

Topic: GSK’s transformation of their biostatistics toolkit through embracing R and open-source software

Problem: GSK, a leading pharmaceutical company, faced the challenge of modernizing their biostatistics processes while maintaining regulatory compliance and meeting critical timelines. The organization needed to shift from traditional proprietary tools to end-to-end use of R, requiring significant changes to existing processes, team capabilities, and organizational culture. With complex regulatory requirements and established workflows, GSK had to navigate the obstacles of achieving parity between R and other proprietary languages in their biostatistics toolkit while ensuring teams could continue delivering key results during the transition.

Solution: GSK approached their open-source transformation through a comprehensive strategy focused on gradual adoption and community engagement:

Initiated strategic pilots with open-source software, particularly R, to demonstrate value and build organizational confidence while fostering broader acceptance across teams.
Developed evolving training programs to upskill biostatistics teams in R while ensuring they could continue meeting critical deliverables and regulatory requirements throughout the transition.
Committed to contributing back to the open-source community as an integral part of their adoption journey, recognizing that giving back strengthens the entire ecosystem and accelerates industry-wide progress from pilot projects to large-scale enterprise adoption.

Featured in this webinar

Ben Arancibia

Director of Data Science, GSK

Data Scientist with 12+ years of technology driven solutions experience in the public, private, and social sector. Currently, a Director of Data Science at GSK focused on data science enablement and open source solutions. Considerable experience in implementing data science solutions, either in the form of transformational efforts in data science strategy, new market entry or new business model development; to more tactical changes, such as machine learning optimization, data visualization improvements, technology platform development, system integration, and operational risk analysis.

Becca Krouse

Data Scientist in GSK's Data Science Innovation and Engineering Team

With over 14 years in clinical research, Becca is a biostatistician by training who specializes in developing R-based tools. Her expertise bridges statistical theory and practical application, ensuring GSK's biostatistics remains innovative.

Andy Nicholls

Head of Statistical Data Sciences at GSK

Andy Nicholls has a long history with the R language and in data science, authoring the book ‘R in 24 Hours’. He is currently Head of Statistical Data Sciences within GSK’s Biostatistics department. One of his team’s main objectives is to embed the R language within Biostatistics; developing training materials, overseeing various adoption initiatives and provisioning a world-class environment for R . He is also the lead for the cross-industry R Validation Hub initiative that aims to support the use of R for regulatory work.

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