Global Life Sciences Industry Outlook 2023

End-to-end visibility is a necessity, and increased vendor visibility and investment in digital sensing capabilities can help life sciences companies avoid costly missteps.

Emphasize people-oriented design to promote production success. Life sciences companies that focus on high-value, relationshipdriven investments in their employees can create more resilient supply chains.

In the long run, sustainability can become an advantage of life science companies' supply chains, and circularity is increasingly becoming a prerequisite for life science companies' supply chain design. In addition, the drive for sustainability has prompted life science companies to avoid inventory imbalances when available supply does not match demand.

In the face of geopolitical security, many life science companies are using blockchain for anti-counterfeiting, genomic and clinical data sharing, revenue management, and material handling. Another key goal for life sciences companies is to improve supply chain visibility, industry partnerships, and distribution agility in national and regional markets to increase their compliance and efficiency.

Pricing and reimbursement

Global drug pricing and reimbursement policies are undergoing a historic shift, and companies are increasingly competing. In response to these commercial pressures, life sciences companies are adopting dynamic pricing while taking a portfolio management approach to the growing number of specialized treatments for a range of diseases. In the increasingly competitive market environment, enterprises gradually adjust their pricing strategies. But in global markets, pressure is also mounting over pricing and equitable access to treatment.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) authorizes Medicare, the US national health insurance program, to negotiate drug prices and force drug manufacturers to pay inflation rebates. However, drugs without a single source and similar competitive products that have been approved and marketed will not be eligible for negotiations. As a result, companies need to deal with price uncertainty.

With the release of the IRA drug pricing provisions, Medicare may expand its acceptance of value-based pricing, which is already used by some health care providers. However, if a similar pricing approach is to be adopted for prescription drugs, the current model cannot be followed and payment amounts need to be determined by an independent assessment of their clinical value.

Drug pricing and reimbursement policies depend on factors such as health profiles, competition and profit margins. Companies need to adapt their pricing and reimbursement strategies to regional markets. One response to changes in drug pricing is to balance a country's ability to pay with the individual needs of patients. Some pharmaceutical companies are using data analytics to predict how local markets will react to specific products.

The relatively high cost of treatment for rare diseases is one of the major challenges in pricing rare disease drugs. Therefore, to bring a new generation of specialty therapies to market, it is necessary to develop its own unique commercialization strategy in terms of pricing and reimbursement.

Managing pricing trends and transparency to improve access to medicines can lead to potential legal hurdles and reputational risks for life sciences businesses.

5. Patient-centered

Today, three-quarters of the world's population has home-tested a global virus, and companies are increasingly able to capture, interpret, and act on billions of patient data points. Patients' expectations and ability to express expectations were improved. The conditions are ripe for true (or more) patient-centricity.

Thanks to virtual health checks and smartphone-enabled diagnostic tools, as well as habits developed during the pandemic, fewer patients are visiting centralized health care facilities, and decentralized diagnostic methods are emerging. Patients stay at home, and life sciences companies can collect their data through personal devices. As life sciences businesses move toward becoming patient-centric, many are exploring "true" direct-to-consumer channels that enable patients to engage directly anytime, anywhere.

In the drug discovery and development process, wearables are another area that life sciences companies are actively exploring and investing in. Since 2010, the number of clinical trials has increased by more than 400 percent. However, patient recruitment remains one of the challenges of discovery research. Currently, pharmaceutical companies are using methods such as remote and virtual participation in trials to improve cost effectiveness and address the barriers faced by patients in traditional trial design.

Life sciences businesses need to build patient-centered partnerships for better diagnoses, experiences, and outcomes. To enhance their patient-centric offerings, life sciences companies manage real-world data to more precisely target patients who can benefit from their treatments. It also focuses on technologies that enhance interoperability between different entities, creating digital interoperability ecosystems that improve patient care. However, full digitisation can only be of value if patients are willing to share sensitive personal information.