Opinion

What 2025 means for the life sciences sector in the New Year.

Despite steady growth since the Drug Quality and Security Act, outsourcing facilities remain constrained in scale and scope, offering targeted mitigation rather than systemic relief for persistent shortages.

Merck’s decision to shutter its Riverside, PA antibiotic API facility underscores how decades of cost-driven optimization have eroded domestic manufacturing of essential medicines—exposing systemic vulnerabilities in US drug supply resilience that markets alone are unlikely to fix.

When intelligence flows across clinical, access, and engagement channels, commercialization shifts from reactive to predictive, giving teams the real-time edge to win in a fast-moving market.

A US-China Economic and Security Review Commission report highlights China’s tightening grip on APIs, biomanufacturing, and R&D services, raising alarms about supply chain vulnerabilities, data transparency gaps, and the urgent need for US policy action.

Bayer’s Luiz Barberini highlights how artificial intelligence is transforming supply chain operations, while emphasizing the irreplaceable value of trust, transparency, and human relationships.

New bipartisan legislation would give the FDA authority to modernize prescribing information, reducing waste while improving accuracy and patient care.

Addressing the most common concerns surrounding the legislation intended to establish interoperability within the pharma supply chain.

Payer-level reporting should do more than track performance—it must guide strategy, focus resources, and drive measurable brand impact.

In the first part of his Pharma Commerce video interview, Dave Malenfant, a healthcare supply chain expert, explains how steep pharmaceutical import tariffs might affect costs at different points in the supply chain, why component pricing poses a bigger risk than active ingredients, and how insurers, distributors, and manufacturers may negotiate to shield patients from price increases.

In the seventh part of this roundtable discussion, key opinion leaders uncover how pharma companies can mitigate tariff impact through duty drawback programs and smart technology investments, without overreacting or overhauling manufacturing footprints unnecessarily.

Why startups and life sciences companies should approach this booming sector with extreme caution.

In the first part of his Pharma Commerce video interview, Sean O’Hearen, founder and principal consultant at 1st Line Partners, lays out the systemic gaps in medical and pharmacy education that need to be addressed, along with how academic and clinical institutions can accelerate awareness training in identifying substandard and falsified medicines.

Engaging the full workforce—from HR to R&D—can elevate launch outcomes, build trust, and create long-term brand ambassadors.

As drug development increasingly targets multiple indications, pharma companies must make strategic branding decisions—balancing regulatory requirements, market dynamics, and patient safety—to choose between single-brand or multi-brand approaches.

In order to succeed in today’s outcomes-driven healthcare landscape, pharmaceutical companies must move from traditional sales models to strategic, measurable partnerships with integrated delivery networks (IDNs).

Potential import taxes on pharma goods entering the United States continue to have effects on the industry in more ways than one.

Direct-to-consumer and direct-to-patient models are major contributors.

This serialization system represents a business imperative that yields significant competitive advantages.

In an exclusive sit-down with Pharma Commerce, Anne Cassity, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), discusses pending legislation that could affect the impact of PBM pricing.

A Day 3 presentation dives into the impact of copay accumulators, maximizers, and AFPs on driving cost savings.

The session provides an overview of the uninsured population, and also tackles challenges faced by patients when it comes to accessing PAPs.

This link in the pharma supply chain is undergoing a major transformation propelled by technological advancements, regulatory changes, and evolving market dynamics, requiring industry leaders to adopt innovative strategies in order to remain competitive.

In the first part of his video interview with Pharma Commerce Editor Nicholas Saraceno, Brad Stewart, BDO’s national life sciences co-leader, discusses how the tariffs impact the reshoring of manufacturing services, alongside the strategies that pharma leaders can use in order to start shoring up their supply chains.

In the final part of his video interview with Pharma Commerce Editor Nicholas Saraceno, Geoffrey Joyce, PhD, director of health policy at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics at USC, describes how PBMs financially benefit from generics, and why a completely open generic market powered by cash would be beneficial.