From Patterns to Prompts: Pawan Verma on AI Across the Pharma Value Chain

Pawan Verma (0:00)

Speciality is one area that I'm seeing a great deal of great deal of innovation coming, and I'm very happy to say that it is helping longevity. I mean, you will see, you're seeing that across the globe, people are living longer, people are more healthier because of these innovations coming to life.

Peter High (0:20)

Welcome to Technovation. I'm Peter High, President of Metis Strategy. My guest today is Pawan Verma. Pawan is the Executive Vice President and Chief Data and Information Officer of Cencora. Cencora is a purpose-driven global pharmaceutical and healthcare solutions company that earns more than $300 billion in annual revenue, ranking 10th in the Fortune 500

Its 51,000 plus team members operate across more than 1,400 locations in over 50 countries, providing integrated solutions that span clinical development and commercialization, pharmaceutical distribution, business operations and purchasing, global supply chains, and patient access.

As a member of Cencora's enterprise leadership team, Pawan leads the company's global technology portfolio, services, systems, data and analytics, helping connect this expansive value chain and advance Cencora's purpose of creating healthier futures. Pawan joined Cencora in 2024 after serving as Executive Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer of MetLife. Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles at Foot Locker, Target, and Verizon. In this conversation, we will discuss Cencora's business and technology transformation, the role data and AI play across the pharmaceutical value chain, and how Pawan is building the capabilities and talent needed to improve customer experiences and health outcomes. Pawan, welcome to Technovation. It's great to speak with you today.

Pawan Verma (1:39)

Thank you, Peter. Thank you for having me, and I'm looking forward to the conversation, and thank you for that great introduction.

Peter High (1:45)

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I must say, the day you got the role at Cencora back in 2024, I was not aware of the rebranding of the company from Amerisforce Bergen. So I'm thinking to myself, what my goodness, Pawan has joined this massive company that I'm less familiar with. And then it unfolded for me as to the organization that I did know previously. So talk a bit about the company and its current instantiation, if you would.

Pawan Verma (3:26)

Thank you for the question. I think you're not the only one. We recently, a couple of years back, changed the name. We used to be called Amerisource Bergen. And as we became global, truly global, as you highlighted in the introduction, we operate in 40 plus different countries. And so the range and the scope is quite global. And we wanted it to be more global name in our naming. And that's how the word Cencora was born.

As you highlighted, 51,000 team member, almost 1,400 or so different location that we operate. And just to give you a number, one of the things is scale-wise, people don't realize. You highlighted 320 billion plus revenue.

Every day, 5 million plus for mystical gate in our broader network. And as you highlighted with 5 million, 4 million plus Peter is within 12 day, 12 hour of delivery. So the scale and size is quite, quite vast. And as you highlighted, we are very purpose-driven company. And, you know, as I had been really blessed to lead, you know, in other companies, we really take purpose to a different level.

I have not had in last two year any conversation that any decision that we make, as we think about, think about financial capital deployment, we think about, you know, whatever is happening in the world, patient in center of everything that we do. So as you can see, our purpose is we are united in our responsibility to create a healthier future. We really mean it. And you will see that in the CEO's action, you will see that in board section, you will see that in our interaction. So I think it's truly, truly imbedded into our purpose. Second and the last thing I would say about us is, scale is advantage, which is great. It is huge that we get to serve in the pharmaceutical value chain. But making prioritization is sometime can be challenged within that scale. And that's what I think we are working towards. Hopefully, that was helpful.