Accelerating clinical innovation with a modern lakehouse architecture

Summary

A global biotech leader partnered with Marlabs to accelerate drug development, mitigate clinical risks, and reinforce its leadership in personalized medicine. The client recognized the urgent need for a more scalable and robust data platform that could support its growing clinical data demands and deliver insights faster. The solution involved building a secure, GxP-validated lakehouse platform that optimized the client’s DataOps landscape, improved data quality and governance, and dramatically enhanced analytics capabilities across the organization. As a result, the client was able to reduce manual data processing, improve time-to-market for new therapies, and enable a culture of data-driven decision-making.

Challenge

The client faced mounting pressure to streamline its clinical data operations and bolster analytics to sustain innovation in personalized medicine. Their legacy systems were unable to scale efficiently or provide the level of insight required to reduce risk across their clinical pipeline. To maintain their competitive edge, the client needed a platform that could unify data operations, ensure regulatory compliance, and empower clinical teams with reliable, self-service analytics tools.

Solution

Data Strategy Assessment

The engagement began with a comprehensive assessment of the client’s existing data landscape. This phase focused on identifying technological gaps and data bottlenecks that hindered agility and compliance. By collaborating closely with client stakeholders, the team mapped out a future-state data strategy aligned with business goals and regulatory needs. The assessment laid the foundation for a transformation roadmap that prioritized scalability, security, and agility.

Platform Development

Marlabs developed a secure, GxP-validated lakehouse platform designed to handle large volumes of clinical data with precision and integrity. Integrated with advanced data tools, the platform enabled seamless ingestion and processing across various data sources. Built with DataOps principles in mind, it provided a consistent and compliant environment for managing data workflows and delivering high-value insights. The validation process ensured the platform met strict regulatory standards critical to the life sciences industry.

Data Architecture & Governance

To enable trustworthy data sharing and advanced analytics, a robust architectural framework was established. This included the implementation of role-based access controls (RBAC), ensuring the right users had the appropriate access to sensitive data. A comprehensive data governance framework was introduced, reinforcing compliance with global regulations and internal policies. These steps fostered a culture of accountability and trust in the organization’s data assets.

ETL Migration & Optimization

In the final phase, existing ETL processes were migrated to the new platform. This migration not only streamlined data ingestion but also introduced self-service capabilities that empowered domain experts to develop their own data products. By adopting a federated governance model, the client could manage compliance while supporting decentralized innovation. These improvements enabled more responsive, data-driven decision-making across clinical functions.

Results

The new lakehouse platform produced measurable benefits across the organization. Clinical development timelines were shortened by 20%, and manual data processing time was cut by 30%. Enhanced analytics capabilities helped bring new therapies to market 15% faster, while improved data governance boosted overall data quality by 40%. These gains significantly strengthened the client’s ability to innovate and compete in the fast-moving biotech landscape.

Impact

• Enabled a 20% faster clinical development process
• Reduced manual data processing time by 30%
• Improved time-to-market for new therapies by 15%
• Increased overall data quality by 40%
• Empowered clinical teams with self-service analytics capabilities
• Fostered a data-driven culture supported by federated governance
• Achieved regulatory compliance with a GxP-validated architecture
• Strengthened the client’s global leadership in personalized medicine