Driving health transformation: big pharma's innovation labs revolution

Large pharmaceutical companies are evolving their innovation strategies, moving from closed R&D models towards open, collaborative ecosystems. Innovation labs have emerged as key organizational infrastructures in this shift, designed to accelerate the development, validation and adoption of new healthcare solutions. However, a systematic understanding of industry-led innovation labs remains limited.

This study aims to comprehensively characterize the structure, strategic focus, activities and outputs of innovation labs promoted by major pharmaceutical companies, and to identify patterns and divergences across different organizational models.

We conducted a structured literature review in PubMed and an original mapping of innovation labs established by the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies. Data were collected from peer-reviewed publications, official corporate reports and grey literature. Innovation labs were analyzed according to their digital orientation, geographical structure (unicentric versus multicentric), activity domains, stakeholder engagement and innovation outputs.

A total of 102 innovation centres promoted by 14 pharmaceutical companies were included. Most centres demonstrated a strong digital focus, particularly on digital health solutions and remote patient monitoring. Collaboration activities were widely reported (98%), mainly involving universities (92%) and other industries (65%). Support for entrepreneurship was a major theme, reflected in mentoring programs (87%), co-development opportunities (85%) and access to funding (40%). A comparative analysis revealed that multicentric initiatives were significantly more engaged in external collaborations, entrepreneurship promotion and educational activities, and produced higher rates of patents and spin-offs compared with unicentric initiatives. However, unicentric labs were more associated with internal capacity building and early-stage clinical research.

Pharmaceutical innovation labs are pivotal in healthcare transformation, integrating scientific, technological and entrepreneurial approaches. Multicentric and unicentric models offer complementary strengths: multicentric hubs enhance external engagement and scalability, while unicentric labs foster organizational learning and focused research. Understanding and strategically balancing both models could maximize the impact of pharmaceutical innovation infrastructures. Future research should explore longitudinal impacts, patient involvement and the interaction of innovation labs with venture capital ecosystems and regulatory frameworks.