Foundational certainties of the biopharma industry may no longer hold true for the sector’s future as paradigm shifts reshape the global life sciences space, says the UK BioIndustry Association (BIA) chair Dan Mahoney.
“It’s a time for all of us — as investors, executives, clinicians — [to] begin to question whether we hold essential assumptions that create obstacles rather than opportunities,” stated Mahoney, while addressing an audience at the 2025 Sidley Healthcare Investment Conference on 30 September in London, UK.
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The BIA chair identified key areas during his opening remarks where he said the global biopharma sector could expect to see foundational and transformational change in the near future. Mahoney said a number of long-held assumptions about the industry were due to unravel, and predicted threats to the sector’s more established companies as well as opportunities for new growth in certain regions.
At the same time, sustained interest rates on borrowing, cash flow, profit margins, and return on invested capital are now supplanting revenue growth are the foremost concerns for biopharma investors. “The cost of capital is back,” he said, adding that these factors will have a huge impact on the type of companies that will get funding.
Additionally, he predicted the US industry will experienced greater pressures to limit drug pricing where companies had previously enjoyed substantial pricing power. On 30 September, US President Trump announced an agreement with Pfizer that would involve US states to access Pfizer drugs at Most Favored Nation (MFN) prices for their Medicaid programs.
Mahoney pointed to Trump’s MFN-related pricing proposals and calls in government to reform regulation surrounding pharmacy benefit managers as key factors. These pressures are projected to cost the industry a trillion dollars over 10 years, as per some estimates, he said.
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By GlobalDataIn contrast, Mahoney said Europe could become a more attractive market for investment over the next decade. He attributed this to the lower R&D and manufacturing costs on the continent compared to in the US, despite Trump’s efforts to boost domestic manufacturing through the institution of tariffs on pharmaceutical imports.
“The other challenge to the US has come from China,” he said as the Asian power has become the “go-to place” for early-stage clinical trials. Mahoney then discussed how the UK might fare amid the struggle between the life sciences superpowers. If the UK unites the capabilities of its scientific institutions, it could become, “the most capital-efficient place for drug companies to generate proof-on-concept data”.
Finally, Mahoney said changes in culture are due in the biopharma sector. An emphasis on patient centricity in care could establish a new direct-to-patient paradigm in healthcare, he said. Mahoney also called for greater female representation in the upper levels of biotech as reflective of a more diverse set of priorities among consumers. This week, it was announced that GSK CEO Emma Walmsley, one of the few female CEOs of a large pharma company, would make way for Luke Miels to join as CEO starting 1 January 2026.
