Biopharma companies are under pressure as never before – faced with rising levels of risk and uncertainty; the necessity to maximize patient outcomes and demonstrate value, while navigating an increasingly complex reimbursement environment; and the always-on pressure to accelerate development while reducing costs.
In response to these dynamics, companies are being forced to re-examine long-standing models for clinical development and commercialization, to break down functional and data silos, and chart new paths for insight generation and customer engagement. I spoke about this need for “radical reorganization” at the recent 17th Annual eyeforpharma Barcelona conference (March 12-13, 2019).
In the past – even the recent past -- simple restructuring might have been all that was called for. But not today. Instead, companies are confronting the need to radically retool their organizations to work in more cost-effective and agile ways.
On one level, the need for radical reorg is being driven by a basic economic need to flex the cost structure. Traditionally, the only financial levers companies had were cutting staff or limiting research and development. In today’s climate, however, life science leaders need greater flexibility. To gain this while protecting their pipelines, they are increasingly looking to replace costly infrastructure with more adaptable partners.
