The global business climate is ever-evolving, and 2025 looks like it may be particularly challenging. Nowhere is that more evident than in the biopharma space, which is contending with multiple factors including a new administration in the US, new regulatory requirements in the EU, supply chain issues, and an uncertain economy. Despite these obstacles, however, a majority of global life sciences executives remain optimistic, with 68% of respondents in a Deloitte survey expecting strong growth and 57% predicting margin expansion.
This optimism is fueled in part by ongoing advancements in technology, scenario planning to mitigate unpredictability, and a focus on data-driven decision-making to improve big-picture outlooks. These three themes are expected to shape biopharma strategies for 2025, and for years to come.
Theme 1: AI everywhere
AI has been an ongoing topic of discussion, and biopharma companies are poised to realize its potential in every aspect of their business. From rethinking R&D to prioritizing personalized medicine, AI is playing an ever-increasing role in driving how biopharma gets things done.
Drug development specifically is a target for AI. The typical R&D process is slow and unwieldy, with a failure rate as high as 90%. The use of digital twinning, which virtually replicates a patient, can help speed the process of early drug development. Coupled with predictive modeling, these initiatives can accelerate R&D processes from weeks to hours. This will allow companies to prioritize high-potential drug candidates and focus efforts on areas that provide the most therapeutic opportunity.
Other potential uses for AI in the drug development arena include protein folding, drug target identification, drug molecule discovery and design, biomarker identification, drug repurposing, clinical trial patient stratification, and clinical outcomes analysis. Currently, AI has been used to develop 164 investigational drugs and 1 approved drug, with most progress being reported for small-molecule drugs rather than biologics. Additionally, AI is making headway in improving manufacturing and quality control processes. AI has been used to standardize deviation detection and address quality issues across global manufacturing locations by analyzing multiple data streams, allowing manufacturers to adapt and integrate cohesive processes that reduce waste and improve product quality, as well as to resolve issues more quickly.
AI is also being used to bolster patient-centric approaches to care, helping both providers and patients to optimize their healthcare interactions. As with many online engagements, the use of AI chatbots and virtual assistants is expected to become ubiquitous in the healthcare space. These tools can help answer healthcare questions, provide information, and guide patient experience to free up provider time. Smart wearables and implants will help patients better manage their health proactively and enable providers to monitor cardiac activity, blood sugar levels, and physiological functions from remote locations to inform chronic disease management strategies and improve patient quality of life. Additionally, providers can use AI to consolidate enormous quantities of disorganized personal health data to help them tailor treatment to the individual based on unique health data reports. AI also has the potential to accelerate diagnoses, provide immediate access to evidence-based research and guidelines, and reduce diagnostic errors and time to care delivery. In short, AI helps provide patients and providers with a cohesive experience based on individual health data that can improve outcomes and reduce healthcare-related costs.
Theme 2: Growing in an unpredictable climate
Unpredictable challenges in biopharma today include inflation, recession worries, and disruptions in supply chain and manufacturing. Many companies are using strategic scenario planning to mitigate or minimize risk.
- Optimizing operations to facilitate cost reductions while maintaining productivity is a key priority. Nearly 60% of respondents in the Deloitte survey reported that optimizing operations was a priority for 2025. Restructuring, offshoring, and outsourcing were mentioned as primary ways to boost efficiency and increase returns.
- Fortifying supply chains and improving cybersecurity were the top focuses of 48% of MedTech executives and 67% of executives overall in the Deloitte survey. Safeguarding business interests and data in an increasingly unstable world is key to continued success in 2025 and beyond.
- Organizations are keeping an eye on government policies, rule changes, and cuts that have the potential to disrupt business operations, including monitoring appointees to health policy positions, strengthening strategies around regulation and compliance at federal, state, and local levels, and assessing how governmental policies will potentially impact the industry. Potential for US regulatory changes, global regulatory changes, and geopolitical uncertainties were a concern for nearly 40% of survey respondents.
Theme 3: Data-driven decision making
Aside from speeding R&D timelines and improving patient-provider interactions, AI is increasingly being used by biopharma companies themselves to generate insights and inform strategic decision-making. A plethora of AI-generated data from a variety of traditional and non-traditional sources is being used to power actionable insights that inform organizational approaches to everything from market access strategies to patient engagement and sales force optimization. Predictive models are transforming the speed at which companies can pivot based on market dynamics and global shifts. Most importantly, harnessing these data outputs across the company is breaking down siloes and integrating relevant information in a cohesive manner that allows multidisciplinary functions to react and respond to trends, competitive actions, emerging therapeutic areas, and regulatory changes more quickly and effectively than ever before.
Conclusion
While uncertainty and unrest are recurring themes throughout, biopharma businesses are taking proactive steps to incorporate the technology and strategic approaches they need to create opportunities for now and in the future. Offshoring and outsourcing are helping to accelerate advances and create cost efficiencies, while AI is increasingly integrated into all aspects of business, from optimizing patient-provider interactions to streamlining data collection to informing insights and trends to drive business growth. To learn more about how Cactus Life Sciences may be able to help you in any and all of these areas, contact us here.
Laura Perry
Vice President of Marketing