Sector(s)
Pharma is regulation in real time.
Every statement must be documented, every publication traceable, every target group served with its own access, its own rules, and its own vocabulary. Patients, medical professionals, the scientific community, veterinary medicine, applicants, media. Over 130 countries, over 40 markets, each with its own legal framework.
This is the reality in which our client communicates every day. And it is the benchmark against which every digital solution must prove itself, once it moves from pitch to operations.
About the project
A problem that grows.
In 2017, our client’s digital landscape looked like that of most corporations of this size. Grown organically over years. Local initiatives alongside central platforms alongside specific solutions for individual business units. What worked in isolation created friction in sum.
Three areas of tension ran through almost every department:
Global brand meets local responsibility
Local autonomy is non-negotiable – but so is global consistency.
One audience, three compliance worlds
Patients, healthcare professionals, the scientific community, and veterinary medicine: three regulatory frameworks, one platform.
Touchpoints that go beyond the website
Corporate sites, HCP portals, e-learning, annual reports, medical affairs, patient platforms.
The question was never whether this needed to be modernised. The question was how to rethink a world that had grown over decades – so that global standards, local flexibility, and regulatory compliance were no longer in conflict.
- Volkan Jacobsen, Managing Partner, Factorial.io
A central platform for global consistency.
Together with our client, we developed an architecture that brings together five components:
A global design system: Components, templates, typography. Each market retains creative room. The visual identity remains recognisable.
A shared codebase: New features are developed centrally and then made available to all markets. Security patches are built once and rolled out everywhere within a short time.
Role-based editorial system: Pharma-specific approval processes are mapped directly in Drupal. Content moves through defined stages, each stage tied to a role, every change versioned, every step auditable.
Integration into the enterprise MarTech stack: Connected with DAM, video distribution, analytics, and marketing automation. Content flows instead of sitting in silos.
Hosting on certified infrastructure: Container-based. ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2 Type 2. Data sovereignty according to local requirements.
Eight years of architecture work, measured in impact.
500+ Websites
One platform for nearly all web-based touchpoints of the group. Global brand and local markets within a shared architecture.
100+ Projects
Joint initiatives realised over eight years. From annual reports to HCP portals to internal applications.
40+ Markets
Corporate presences in over 40 countries. Local teams retain creative latitude without compromising the global codebase.
8 Years of Partnership
Strategic partner for digital transformation since 2017.
3 Compliance Worlds
Patients, healthcare professionals, the scientific community, and veterinary medicine, each with its own regulatory framework.
2 Certifications
ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2. Data sovereignty according to local requirements.
What remains after eight years.
Standards emerge. A shared language. Structured requirement documents, formal approval processes, defined release cycles, documented security and compliance guidelines.
These standards did not come out of a workshop. They were negotiated, tested, and refined over years. Every project contributed to them. Every subsequent project benefits from them. This is the invisible value of a long-term partnership. And a decisive reason why 500 individual websites have become a coherent digital product.
We decided early on to stop building siloed solutions. Factorial helped us implement that decision consistently.
- Alex D. (anonymized), Global Executive Pharma Corporation
Why Drupal was chosen
The core requirement was an architecture that could carry over 500 websites across 40+ markets without sacrificing local autonomy — and that would hold up under the compliance demands of a highly regulated industry. Three capabilities made Drupal the right foundation.
First, the role-based editorial workflow. Pharma-specific approval processes — multiple target groups, each with its own regulatory framework, every content change traceable — mapped directly into Drupal's permissions and content moderation system. No custom middleware required.
Second, the distribution model. A shared codebase means new features and security patches are built once and deployed everywhere. For an organisation operating across more than 40 countries, this is not a convenience — it is a prerequisite.
Third, the integration surface. The platform needed to connect with DAM, marketing automation, video distribution, and analytics without creating new silos. Drupal's API-first architecture and the broad availability of maintained contributed modules made this feasible within the constraints of a long-term production system.
Open-source licensing also addressed a strategic concern: no single vendor controls the roadmap. For a partnership now in its eighth year — and counting — that kind of institutional stability matters.
Technical Specifications
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