Veeva Is the Platform Biotechs Build On But Adlib Is What Makes It Scale

Veeva announced that more than 75 emerging biotechs are now using their Vault platform across clinical, regulatory, and quality. And with a recent launch of Veeva AI, it's becoming clear that biotechs are not only racing toward INDs and first patient in, but also building their operations to scale fast and signal M&A readiness from the start.

And there’s a reason Veeva is the go-to choice. It provides out-of-the-box compliance, a unified content model, and a pathway from TMF to QMS to RIM. In other words, it’s everything a young biotech needs to look like an enterprise, and more importantly, look like a highly acquirable asset.

But looking ready isn’t enough. To operate at scale, automate critical workflows, and pass diligence without red flags, you need more than infrastructure.

Companies that demonstrate operational maturity through scalable systems and clean data pipelines can significantly shorten M&A due diligence timelines, according to Bain & Co.

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Why Startups Bet on Veeva

When you’re pre-IPO or heading toward acquisition, the tech stack you build now matters. This goes beyond "getting the job done". It’s about setting the table for diligence, interoperability, and integration.

Veeva offers that backbone:

• Built-in GxP and 21 CFR Part 11 compliance
• Modular growth across TMF, RIM, QMS, CTMS
• A single authoritative source of truth for documents

But the reality is that Veeva wasn’t built to automate everything.

"The feedback that we're hearing is that the gaps in document handling (such as metadata, version control, validation, and, ultimately, rejection risk) are where companies either scale through middleware or get buried in rework."
- Anthony Vigliotti, Chief Product Officer, Adlib

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Manual Workflows = Value Erosion

Manual document review, batch metadata entry, and rekeying errors are big annoyances, but more importantly, they are risk multipliers:

• Document rejection rates can hit 20–30%, costing up to $1,000 per document in remediation.
• Audit failures delay approvals, kill M&A momentum, and risk millions of dollars in delayed market entry for blockbuster assets.
• Review cycles stretch for weeks when AI could compress them into minutes.

Startups can’t afford that. Not when headcount is lean, trial timelines are tight, and investors want operational leverage from Day 1.

"We’re seeing biotechs with fewer than 50 employees trying to meet enterprise-grade compliance demands. Automation isn’t a nice-to-have in these scenarios. It’s a multiplier.”
- Erikjan Franssen, Chief Revenue Officer, Adlib

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Veeva + AI: The Promise of Speed

Veeva AI is designed to automate the most painful document tasks: drafting, search, and summarization. That’s huge for life sciences teams drowning in SOPs, protocols, and study reports.

It’s an exciting vision. But as Veeva itself acknowledges, many use cases are still early and depend on structured content, proper classification, and clean document metadata which most companies, especially startups, don’t have today.

"Veeva AI is a powerful step forward but like any AI, it’s only as good as the inputs. Adlib ensures those inputs are structured, validated, submission-ready, and AI-ready. We prime your documents so Veeva AI can actually deliver on its promise of faster, smarter, more accurate insights. Think of Adlib as an AI Accelerator."
- Anthony Vigliotti, Chief Product Officer, Adlib

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The Document Debt Holding Startups Back

Biotechs using Veeva Vault face a harsh reality: the majority of their documents arrive as scanned PDFs, inconsistent templates, or unstructured forms. Before you can run AI (or pass audit), you need to standardize, validate, and structure your content.

Adlib acts as the middleware intelligence layer on top of Veeva. It transforms unstructured documents into validated, AI-ready, compliant data that flows seamlessly through your Vault and across your enterprise.

“Customers don’t just want Veeva Vault. They want to know that their documents are right the first time, ready for audit, and structured for analytics.”
- Anthony Vigliotti, Chief Product Officer, Adlib

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Adlib + Veeva: AI’s Essential On-Ramp

Adlib isn’t another system. It’s the invisible engine powering compliance and automation behind the scenes. It prepares your documents so AI (including Veeva AI) can actually do its job.

"Think of it as AI enablement for regulated workflows. The invisible engine that powers your tech stack."
- Anthony Vigliotti, Chief Product Officer, Adlib

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Imagine this scenario:

A Series B biotech with 20 employees preparing its first IND. They’ve deployed Veeva Vault but are still manually validating every PDF, chasing metadata, and formatting submission bundles by hand. Adlib automates that entire workflow reducing prep time by 60%, rejection rates by 50%, and freeing up the quality team to focus on strategy, not formatting.

For a biotech processing 10,000 documents/year, a 25% rejection rate = 2,500 remediations. At $500–$1,000 per remediation, that’s a $1.25–2.5M problem every year. Adlib significantly reduces these costs and pays for itself 10-fold.

“Startups want enterprise-grade infrastructure without enterprise headcount. Adlib is how they get there.”
- Erikjan Franssen, Chief Revenue Officer, Adlib

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M&A Is the Endgame. Veeva + Adlib Is the Stack That Proves You’re Ready.

Whether you're preparing for IPO or acquisition, this is the stack that signals operational maturity to investors and acquirers alike:

• Veeva for compliance, structure, and global adoption
• Adlib for automation, audit readiness, and AI enablement

Together, they make your operations faster, smarter, seamlessly integratable, and M&A-ready from day one.

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Ready to see how Adlib can make your Veeva deployment even smarter?
‍Let’s talk. Your future acquirer will thank you.