Pharma data platforms usually need to segment access along lines that have nothing to do with technical architecture: commercial vs. medical vs. clinical, region-restricted data, PHI/PII boundaries, and pre-approval material that can’t leave a review workflow. Historically that meant standing up separate warehouses or schemas per business unit, then reconciling them later.
Unity Catalog’s catalog → schema → table hierarchy, combined with row- and column-level security, lets you model those boundaries directly instead of working around a flat permission model. This post is a placeholder for a longer write-up on the catalog structure, attribute-based access control patterns, and lineage practices that have worked well across engagements.