For decades, the SAS language has been the backbone of clinical research, powering critical data analytics in the pharmaceutical industry. But as technology advances, pharmaceutical companies face increasing challenges—managing costs, adapting to new platforms, and embracing flexibility in statistical computing. This has fueled a strong open-source movement, giving businesses the freedom to reduce their dependence on the SAS language and explore alternatives like R.

While the benefits of open-source adoption are undeniable—fostering collaboration, standardization, and innovation—replacing SAS language with R has proven to be an uphill battle. That’s where Altair SLC™ steps in. With a groundbreaking approach that blends SAS language programming with modern tools like R, Python, and cloud-based computing, Altair empowers pharmaceutical businesses to evolve without compromise.

Comprehensive Tools for Modern Data Analytics

Altair SLC brings together powerful tools that can work independently and seamlessly integrate to enhance your workflows:

• Altair Analytics Workbench®: This feature-rich desktop integrated development environment (IDE) is a game-changer for anyone working with the SAS language. It offers drag-and-drop functionality, built-in code generation (copilot), auto-complete features, syntax highlighting, source control, code compatibility reporting, and additional features. Whether you're using Windows, Linux, or macOS, Altair Analytics Workbench provides a smooth, seamless experience across all platforms. This is particularly valuable for pharmaceutical companies conducting regulatory submissions and clinical trials, ensuring compliance and efficiency.
• Altair SLC: Altair’s SAS language compiler is the engine that powers your SAS language programs. It runs everything—from data steps and macros to ODS, procedures, and data connectors—quickly and efficiently. This cross-platform engine ensures that your programs execute flawlessly, whether you're on a local machine, a server, or in the cloud. For pharmaceutical companies managing vast clinical datasets, this level of performance is crucial.
• Altair SLC Hub™: Altair SLC Hub is where all your management happens. It handles users and security, load balancing, pipelines, job scheduling, and on demand APIs, keeping everything in check and running efficiently. The Hub is designed to scale effortlessly, working in both on-premises server clusters and cloud environments. Pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) teams can benefit from the scalability needed to process large volumes of data securely and efficiently.
• Altair SLC VSCode Extension: As a fully tailored IDE for SAS programming within the popular VSCode development platform, users can easily integrate SAS workflows into existing development environment. With this plug-in, you get the best of both worlds—powerful SAS language support and the familiar interface of VSCode. This ensures that pharmaceutical analysts can maintain productivity while leveraging modern development tools.

Altair knows flexibility is crucial, so whether you're working with SAS language on a desktop, server, public cloud, or even a container, Altair SLC has you covered. Pharmaceutical companies can seamlessly integrate with existing regulatory and commercial frameworks, providing a key advantage. Plus, Altair SLC continues to integrate with platforms like Posit, Domino Data Lab, and Sycamore, ensuring you can work seamlessly with the tools you already rely on.

Embracing Open-Source Technologies

Altair has always believed in the power of open-source innovation. That’s why Altair SLC supports R, Python, and SQL—allowing users to execute these languages alongside SAS with ease. With built-in API support, you can even invoke Altair SLC directly from R or Python, unlocking endless possibilities for your data analytics strategy. This is a game-changer for pharmaceutical companies leveraging machine learning and advanced analytics for drug discovery and clinical trial optimization.

This integration provides customers with the flexibility and cost control they need, without sacrificing the power of the SAS language. No need for extra add-ons—Altair SLC supports a range of open-source and proprietary data formats, making data connectivity effortless. By reducing software licensing costs and increasing analytical agility, Altair SLC enables pharmaceutical companies to focus more on innovation and less on infrastructure constraints.

A Customer-Driven Approach to Innovation

Unlike other vendors that push rigid roadmaps, Altair SLC is built for and with its users. Our development is driven by customer feedback, ensuring we meet the evolving needs of pharmaceutical development. For over two decades, this commitment has fueled the success of Altair SLC, making it a modern, flexible, and cloud-ready solution designed for seamless integration.

As technology continues to evolve, so do we. Altair continues to invest in product development—ensuring our customers have the tools they need to stay ahead. Ready to embrace the next era of clinical data analytics? Contact us today at altair.com/contact-us.