Scaling Content Excellence: Angelini Pharma's Agile Journey from Crisis to Global Impact

Sep 09, 2025 | Francesco Iaccarino

A few years ago at Angelini Pharma, we faced a critical challenge when an audit in France revealed non-compliance in our content management processes. This posed a high risk that intensified as other markets quickly recognized their own vulnerability to similar issues. It became clear that we urgently needed a new, best-in-class content system. This was not just about averting an immediate crisis, but about future-proofing our content operations. Beyond regulatory compliance, this presented an opportunity to transform our content supply chain into a powerful driver of commercial excellence.

Fit-for-purpose solution transforms content management

My team and I knew we had to act fast. We quickly prepared a time-sensitive business case to transition from our former content management tool - a basic system with limited functionality used across nearly 24 affiliates and global functions - to a comprehensive, compliant solution that was ready to implement and easy to scale. We determined the safest path forward was a proven, industry-leading solution rather than experimentation.

We selected Veeva PromoMats as our foundational content solution, offering the immediate value and regulated content management we needed. From the very first demo, everyone on the team felt that with PromoMats we were moving in the right direction to deliver compliant content at scale. Its full range of functionalities avoided the need for extensive customization and fostered quick alignment across departments, leading to faster deployment.

Standardization drives rapid rollout

Implementing PromoMats under tight timelines demanded a highly collaborative and streamlined approach. Our priority was to establish a standardized framework first, with local customization explored if necessary at a later stage. Cross-functional team workshops focused on harmonizing global processes and simplifying content approval flows. This commitment to standardization led to smoother scaling and agile integration of new markets.

The initial adoption was driven by the promise of an out-of-the-box solution to accelerate the end-to-end content lifecycle with built-in regulatory guardrails. PromoMats users immediately appreciated new functionalities, such as real-time collaborative authoring and digital asset management. While the investment was higher than our previous tool, we gained significantly more functionalities, security, and speed. This tangible value encouraged stakeholders buy-in, prompting other regions like Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Ireland, and Nordic countries to proactively join France on the path to content excellence.

Content analytics fuels agility and scale

While standardizing processes as much as possible allowed quick deployment of the new tool, we also needed to address different market needs. At Angelini Pharma, we recognized the fundamental role of analytics and bidirectional feedback loops to make the new system efficient and useful for everyone. As the project evolved, the collaboration between global and local teams strengthened and data informed content strategies.

Previously, we lacked a clear understanding of our content production and localization across regions. With PromoMats, we gained crucial insights that helped us identify opportunities to reuse, repurpose or withdraw assets, enabling content tailoring at scale. This newfound visibility into content performance streamlined our end-to-end process, from creation to review and approval. With faster time-to-market, content production costs decreased and turnaround times of our omnichannel campaigns shortened. For example, our campaigns, complete with localizations, are now ready in two to three weeks, accelerating our impact on customer engagement.

Best practices to build a future-fit MLR model

With PromoMats, we were able to create a solid foundation for scalable, compliant content in less than two months for Angelini Pharma worldwide. Our journey provided key learnings and best practices for building a future-fit medical, legal, and regulatory (MLR) model:

• Simplify while addressing local needs: Accelerate implementation by harmonizing and standardizing processes. Collaborate with stakeholders across regions to find the right balance between your overarching global strategy and the unique demands of local markets.
• Transform proactively: Shift from reacting to crises to proactively identifying improvement opportunities. Leverage content analytics to inform strategies and optimize the content supply chain.
• Build a robust ecosystem: Map your entire content ecosystem for long-term benefits and integrate tools to maximize its potential. Connecting PromoMats and Veeva Vault CRM enables automatic distribution of promotional content, real-time performance metrics from delivery channels, and personalized content engagement.
• Embrace agility and cultivate trust: Keep an open mind and do not fear change. Foster high levels of collaboration and commitment across teams for a successful transformation and demonstrate how agility makes a difference in scaling.

Transforming and scaling content operations requires constant evolution. Industry innovations, such as Veeva AI for PromoMats, will drive further efficiencies across the content lifecycle to achieve commercial excellence.

To learn more about scaling content excellence, watch the on-demand Leader Spotlight recording with Francesco Iaccarino.