From $78k per video to in-house in hours.
How Ipsen eliminated its dependency on creative agencies for MOA and MOD production — cutting costs, accelerating time-to-market, and quadrupling content output.
$78k
Previous cost per MOA video
4×
More content produced with VarsaAI
10 wks
Average time to market — now hours
Background
A critical capability gap in scientific content production
Ipsen is a global specialty-driven biopharmaceutical group with a focus on oncology, rare disease, and neuroscience. Communicating complex mechanisms of action and disease — to HCPs, internal training teams, and commercial partners — is central to how the organisation operates. Before partnering with VarsaAI in 2025, Ipsen's Medical Affairs teams faced a fundamental capability gap: the organisation did not have the in-house tools or infrastructure to produce the visual scientific content it needed. Mechanism of action (MOA) animations, mechanism of disease (MOD) videos, and other scientific explainer content had to be commissioned entirely through external creative agencies — a process that was slow, expensive, and left the organisation dependent on third-party production timelines.
The Challenge
Four compounding problems — and a $78,000 price tag per video
No in-house capability for scientific video production
Ipsen lacked the tools, templates, and technical infrastructure to produce MOA and MOD content internally. Every piece of scientific video content — regardless of complexity or urgency — had to be briefed to and produced by an external creative agency.
$78,000 per video — a prohibitive unit cost
In 2024, the average cost to produce a single MOA video through an external agency was $78,000. At that unit cost, the volume of content Medical Affairs teams needed was simply not affordable — limiting how much scientific storytelling Ipsen could do, and for which audiences.
Four months to first draft — then eight more weeks for approval
From brief to first draft took an average of four months. A further eight weeks of internal review and approval followed before content could be used. A total of approximately 10 weeks to get any scientific explanation to market created a bottleneck that affected the entire organisation.
The cost of delay across the business
The 10-week timeline meant that time-sensitive content — new clinical data, updated MOAs for recently approved indications, scientific training materials for new product launches — was consistently delayed. HCP education programmes, commercial team enablement, and marketing launch support all suffered as a result.
"We didn't have the capability to produce visual representations of MOAs and MODs internally. Everything went outside — and outside meant months and significant spend every single time."
— Ipsen Medical Affairs Team · VarsaAI Customer, 2025
The Solution
VarsaAI: scientific video production, in-house, in hours
Ipsen partnered with VarsaAI in 2025 with a clear initial mandate: give Medical Affairs teams the ability to produce MOA and MOD content in-house — without the cost, timelines, or dependency associated with external creative agencies.
VarsaAI's platform — built exclusively for pharma and life sciences — provided exactly that capability. Unlike general-purpose video tools, VarsaAI understands scientific content. Its AI is trained on life sciences language, clinical data structures, and the visual logic of mechanism communication, enabling Medical Affairs teams to produce accurate, polished scientific animations and explainers without specialist design or production skills.
In-house MOA & MOD production becomes a reality
For the first time, Ipsen's Medical Affairs teams could produce mechanism of action and mechanism of disease content internally. VarsaAI's platform provided the tools, templates, and scientific intelligence to generate accurate, visually compelling animations — without briefing an external agency.
Cost per video eliminated — not just reduced
By removing the dependency on external agencies for standard MOA and MOD production, Ipsen eliminated the core cost driver entirely. The $78,000 per-video agency fee — along with the associated project management, revision, and approval overhead — is no longer a factor for content that can now be produced in-house.
Production time compressed from months to hours
Content that previously took four months to reach first draft can now be produced in hours. The 10-week agency cycle — brief, production, revision, delivery — has been replaced by an internal workflow measured in sessions rather than seasons.
Scientific content at the speed of the business
With production timelines no longer a constraint, Medical Affairs and Commercial teams can now access scientific content when they need it — supporting HCP education, launch preparation, commercial team enablement, and training programme delivery without waiting for external production cycles to complete.
Results
Four times the content. A fraction of the cost. None of the wait.
$78k
Per-Video Agency Cost — Eliminated
The average $78,000 cost to produce a single MOA video through an external agency is no longer a line item for standard scientific content. Production is now internal.
4×
More Content Produced
Since partnering with VarsaAI, Ipsen has created four times the volume of scientific content it was previously producing — fuelling faster go-to-market and providing frontline teams with a greater depth of materials.
10wks → Hrs
Time-to-Market — Transformed
From an average of 10 weeks to hours. Scientific content now reaches HCPs, commercial teams, and training programmes at the speed of the business.
Significant
Cost Savings to the Bottom Line
Eliminating much of the dependency on creative agencies for scientific video production has resulted in significant cost savings across the Medical Affairs function — freeing budget for higher-value strategic activity.
The Business Impact
Faster GTM. Deeper content. Stronger frontline teams.
Four times the content isn't just a volume story — it's a capability story. Ipsen's Medical Affairs, commercial, and training teams now have access to the scientific materials they need, when they need them. HCP education programmes are better resourced. Commercial launches are better supported. Training teams are no longer constrained by what the agency queue will allow.
"Eliminating the dependency on creative agencies for MOA production has changed what our Medical Affairs team is able to do — and how quickly we can do it. Content that used to take months is now available in hours, and we're producing four times as much of it."
— Ipsen Medical Affairs Team · VarsaAI Customer, 2025
Why It Worked
Scientific intelligence built in — not bolted on
The reason VarsaAI delivered where general-purpose tools would have failed is domain specificity. Producing an MOA animation is not a design task — it is a scientific communication task. The platform needs to understand molecular mechanisms, pathway logic, and the conventions of clinical science communication in order to generate content that is both visually accurate and medically credible. VarsaAI was built exclusively for pharma and life sciences — trained on the language, structure, and visual logic of scientific content.
Before and After VarsaAI — at a glance
| Before VarsaAI | With VarsaAI | |
|---|---|---|
| MOA/MOD capability | None — fully outsourced | In-house, available to Medical Affairs teams |
| Cost per video | $78,000 (agency fee) | Fraction of previous cost |
| Time to first draft | ~4 months | Hours |
| Full approval cycle | ~10 weeks | Dramatically reduced |
| Annual content volume | Baseline | 4× baseline output |
| Team dependency | External agency | Internal Medical Affairs team |
See what VarsaAI can do for your team
Book a 20-minute demonstration