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Though drug companies tend to justify high drug prices, in part, by citing investments in research and development, not everyone buys that argument.

In response to a tweet from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the top lobbying arm of the industry, which touted $58.8 billion in R&D spending in 2015, Sanders wrote: "Actually 89 out of the top 100 pharmaceutical corporations spent more on marketing and sales than on R&D."

He was referring to a 2014 report from the health care research firm GlobalData, which revealed how drug companies invest more on efforts to sell their products than innovate them. Take Johnson & Johnson, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, for example; in 2013, the company spent $17.5 billion on marketing and only $8.2 billion on research and development, BBC reported.

It's certainly true that research and development represents a costly investment that factors into drug prices, but some experts have raised questions about the extent to which R&D actually determines these prices given the disproportionate spending on marketing.

Despite R&D-focused pharmaceutical executives recognizing digital as the primary driver to be more patient-outcome focused, only half of them are currently adopting digital, according to a new report from Accenture.

When asked to identify the areas in which digital technologies will have the greatest impact on the industry, executives cited “transforming their R&D model to become more patient-focused” more often than any other area (29 percent), ahead of “improving R&D productivity through digitized processes” (22 percent); “enhancing quality and compliance to meet changing regulatory requirements” (18 percent); and “cost reduction in R&D to improve productivity” (12 percent), among other areas.

However, 42 percent of respondents said they are still “exploring” how digital might improve their organizations, with another three percent saying they are still “waiting and seeing” how digital is deployed before developing their own digital capabilities.

“R&D pharma executives clearly believe that digital can help them accomplish their goal of improving patient outcomes,” said Kevin Julian, managing director of Accelerated R&D Services, Accenture Life Sciences. “Companies that are slow to embrace digital may run the risk of conceding competitive position, profit margin and even customer loyalty.”

While all but one (99 percent) of the executives surveyed said that increasing focus on patient outcomes is a “critical” or “very important” priority, four in 10 respondents (39 percent) said that focusing more on patient outcomes was already a key priority of their R&D organizations, and half (49 percent) said that it should be the top priority by 2020.

In the report, Accenture suggests that, to capture the benefits of digital technologies, R&D pharmaceutical leaders should foster a more digital culture and mindset by investing in or leveraging existing digital capabilities in R&D. This could range from data analytic skills and working with Real World Evidence platforms to social media engagement.

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