Executive Outlook: Crafting New Solutions For Persisting Problems

By Ben Comer, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader

The industry forecast for 2023, and how sunny or rainy it is likely to be for organizations engaged in discovering, developing, and commercializing medicines, will depend perhaps more than usual on leadership’s willingness to get creative on a tightening budget. Financial growth at the top 10 Big Pharmas next year — indeed for the next few years — is headed for a slowdown, due to headwinds detailed below. For small and mid-cap companies with a compelling value proposition and a good story to tell, venture funds will continue to flow, but ongoing macroeconomic factors, most notably inflation, are raising the cost of capital and will shorten the runway for many clinical-stage companies, forcing some to ground their development assets indefinitely. While cheap cash may be in short supply, scientific innovation is not: RNA therapeutics, in addition to protein degraders, gene and cell therapies, and other advanced modalities, are posting impressive clinical results, and several important trials will read out next year, including in the CNS and psychiatric space, a therapeutic area that’s long overdue for a product refresh.