Interview with Iria Gala VP, Digital & Customer Engagement, Novo Nordisk
Iria Gala takes a dynamic and holistic approach to digital transformation at Novo Nordisk. As VP, Digital & Customer Engagement, her approach is about more than just tools, it’s about harmonising processes, mobilising organisations and centring customers.
Iria will be speaking in Keynote Panel Discussion The customer-first imperative: Transform to a unified engagement approach at Reuters Events Pharma Customer Engagement Europe 2025, which will take place in London on the 28th and 29th of October.
SciencePOD spoke to Iria in advance of the event to hear about some of the challenges and successes in her role.
Could you tell us about your role at Novo Nordisk?
I see my role as translating marketing and medical strategies into actionable tactics.
We identify the processes needed to ensure best-in-class customer engagement digital and F2F; to ensure that we have the platforms to make it work, and of course the people and capability. I’m responsible for the full digital transformation, so that’s people, process and platform.
Currently, what are your biggest digital challenges?
I would highlight two challenges. Often senior leadership think that what is needed for digital transformation is tools; but for tools to work, we need to update and harmonise processes, and we need to upskill people. Tools are the easy part of the journey – we need to have a clear willingness to mobilise the organisation.
The second is related to data and AI. We want to do more, we want to be more efficient, but we are not so clear on the data we need. Where is the data sitting? How are we going to use the data? Also, who is going to use it? We can go from random experiment to experiment, and that can make large-scale transformation difficult.
Could you share a success story where you were able to solve such challenges?
In terms of customer engagement and digital, one of the most successful is from COVID times. Before then, everything was face-to-face but during COVID digital became a must. We trained a more than 300 field force, in one cluster, how to use the technology, how to present in front of screens, how to talk. In 10 days, we implemented a solution for doctors to do on-demand meetings, and we also translated all the papers into digital content in a matter of weeks. This showed us that when there is a real business problem, a real business need, roadblocks disappear.
How have you used digital content that is aligned to unify medical, marketing and commercial functions?
One issue is customer personas. I thought, ‘How do I translate this into something I can measure?’ I was convinced we could define some attributes that would be replicable cross-brand, that could be used by marketing and medical with the customer at the centre. In 18 months, we not only changed how we were doing personas, but also how we were defining content and campaigns around personas, how we were measuring impact around them. We were able to upskill the marketeers and the medics. It benefited everyone because it was something they could measure, and their content was more relevant.
What are some key takeaways from your own GenAI experimentation at Novo Nordisk?
You need to be very clear on what problem you’re trying to solve and not experiment just because it’s a nice, sexy thing. You also need to design your solution to be ready to scale from the beginning; know the requisites that need to be at the core, then that solution can be scaled in as many markets as needed.
Where do you see the role of GenAI in future content creation?
In pharma, we need to evolve to a more consumer mindset; we need to move from a push to a pull strategy. At this moment, it’s push: we give you the content at a time and through the channel we think is right. But maybe it’s not what you want or when you want it. We need to move to a pull strategy and give you content you’re interested in. It will be done by a combination of AI and GenAI. AI will help us identify when’s the right time, which is the right channel, and what is the right content, and GenAI will create it, then MLR AI will speed up the time to market.