Bridging R&D and clinical operations with frictionless SAP data pipelines

A cross-functional team of researchers has spent months developing a next-generation machine learning (ML) model designed to predict how a new compound behaves across multiple biological targets. It’s the kind of computational power that can accelerate drug discovery by weeks or months and bring life-saving therapies to market faster.

Despite an optimized IT infrastructure and cloud environment, the simulation doesn’t start because the latest compound batch data hasn’t been validated in SAP. The experiment metadata is still siloed in spreadsheets, and the model can’t ingest incomplete or inconsistent values. In other words, the fluid connection required between systems isn’t there.

As you may well know if you work in this industry, this isn’t a hypothetical delay. Data readiness can’t be treated as a side task, although it too often is. In which case, it doesn’t matter how advanced an AI model you have. With regulatory pressures high, the cost of a subtle misalignment is steep.

Because this applies whether you’re simulating compounds, ensuring patient records are anonymized and audit-ready or forecasting inventory, critical processes break down when data stays disconnected. Leading healthcare and pharmaceutical organizations are attempting to solve this common problem by rethinking how data moves from SAP to ML platforms to analytics and back.

Life science’s parallel pipelines: Innovation and execution

In life sciences organizations like yours, innovation happens on two fronts. On one side, your R&D teams use AI and massive datasets to accelerate discovery. ML models in AWS SageMaker or Schrödinger Suite predict promising compound structures, while simulation platforms test toxicity and efficacy before running a single experiment.

On the other side, your clinical and supply chain teams ensure those discoveries reach patients safely and cost-effectively while following all compliance regulations. They manage everything from patient enrollment to cold chain logistics to regulatory filing, with each process powered by SAP supply chain and life sciences solutions and custom platforms.

These processes live in very different domains, but they share a common dependency: structured, timely, accurate data. And in too many organizations, that data still moves manually or asynchronously between systems.

Where the cracks appear 

When SAP data isn’t orchestrated, critical handoffs break down and molecular data must be manually pulled from SAP R&D Management to feed AI pipelines. Trial operations build forecasts on outdated enrollment data. Lab results live in one system and regulatory documentation in another, with no feedback loop. Business users wait on IT to reconcile siloed datasets and generate reports.

Drug discovery is increasingly computational, but that doesn’t mean the work is fully automated. Whether you’re managing experiments or kits, the pain is the same: unreliable flow, lost time and elevated risk. Without intelligent orchestration, pipelines either fall apart or deliver fragmented, stale information. This directly undermines the performance of AI models and introduces bias or neglects to provide key correlations. Essentially, you end up making decisions with outdated datasets — or worse, hallucinations. Predictive models built to accelerate discovery or optimize trial logistics can quickly fall out of compliance with data lineage and validation requirements.

Meanwhile, if you cling to these fragmented or manually stitched data pipelines, you face another growing disadvantage: You can’t match the speed of your competitors. Those who are investing in intelligent, adaptive data orchestration are moving faster while proving the trustworthiness of their AI-driven insights.

High-fidelity orchestration is the foundation of competitive agility and relevance in your industry.

Research, meet orchestration

Orchestration is what makes AI scale in R&D. Your SAP environment becomes the launchpad for faster, smarter research, enabling you to:

• Continuously extract experimental and batch data from SAP R&D Management and SAP Analytics Cloud 
• Send compound specs to AWS SageMaker or Schrödinger Suite for modeling
• Coordinate modeling jobs and return results to Databricks for consolidation
• Push insight summaries about ranked candiddates back into SAP
• Trigger alerts for research leads of successful outcomes or red flags and send validated results to SAP Datasphere

Clinical delivery, intelligently aligned

On the delivery side, timing is everything. Clinical trial operations depend on up-to-date patient enrollment data, trial protocols and inventory levels across distributed trial sites. If systems aren’t aligned, sites risk running out of supplies or holding expired stock.

With proper orchestration:

• Enrollment data from SAP Intelligent Clinical Supply Management flows into forecasting tools
• ML models in Azure ML or Databricks predict site-specific demand
• Stock levels in SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) or S/4HANA Materials Management (MM) are cross-checked automatically
• If risk is flagged, replenishment is triggered and stakeholders are notified
• Trial performance metrics update automatically in SAP Analytics Cloud
• All data is centralized in SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) for regulatory compliance and real-time insight

A research-to-treatment automation fabric

True transformation comes when discovery and delivery are both orchestrated from end to end. Here’s what a real automation fabric looks like.

Forecasting clinical and manufacturing needs

• Export enrollment or order data from SAP S/4HANA
• Clean and enrich using SAP Datasphere
• Run predictive models via Databricks, Azure ML or SageMaker
• Feed outputs into SAP IBP for dynamic planning

Managing research and validation 

• Extract compound data from SAP R&D Management
• Coordinate modeling jobs in Schrödinger Suite
• Score and validate candidates in Databricks
• Trigger SAP updates and notify research teams automatically

Controlling inventory and site logistics

• Pull inventory positions from S/4HANA
• Reconcile with forecasted site needs from SAP IBP and ML pipelines
• Generate and dispatch replenishment orders
• Publish everything in SAP Analytics Cloud for transparency

Keeping teams informed and aligned

• Push alerts to supply, clinical or research leads based on process outcomes
• Route structured datasets to reporting dashboards and compliance archives
• Automate audit trails, approvals and next-step triggers

With every step validated, timestamped and secure thanks to RunMyJobs by Redwood, your data flows continuously, allowing you to be proactive instead of reactive.

Audit-ready AI depends on orchestrated data

The rise of AI in life sciences is helping to optimize molecule screening and clinical trial site selection and even personalize patient communications. With that power comes increasing scrutiny.

Regulators are watching closely. Health authorities in the United States, European Union and beyond are issuing new guidelines around AI in clinical decision-making, digital therapeutics and research applications. They want to know: Where did the data come from? Was it anonymized? Who validated it? And can you prove it?

If your data pipelines are fragmented, those answers may simply not exist. But orchestration changes that. When you automate your data moving from SAP modules to Azure ML or from SAP Datasphere to regulatory systems, you also create a system of record. Every dataset has a timestamp, and every transformation is traceable. This strategically enables AI innovation.

The next wave of advancement will hinge on more than modeling accuracy; you’ll need to be able to explain how your model was built or prove the integrity of the data behind it. With the right orchestration solution, you don’t have to choose between speed and control. You can stay audit-ready and future-ready.

Develop a resilient nervous system

Think of your systems like organs. Each one serves a distinct purpose, but they communicate via signals that travel through connective tissue. These signals are orchestration in action!

Attending SAP Sapphire Orlando 2025? Stop by booth #457 to see how leaders across many industries are building cross-functional automation fabrics with RunMyJobs.