Life sciences pivot for 2025

The whole idea of “a pivot” goes back to the early 1600s. The French pivot meant a pin on which a wheel or other objects turns. For our context, similarly, we suggest a change in direction. The most apparent shift is occurring in the movement towards globalization and outsourcing. Leaders are aggressively balancing risk and rewards. Allow me to share the top evolutions.

  1. One size fits all blockbusters to tailored and personalized
  2. Regional to global to partnerships
  3. Vertically integrated to outsourced – we see this with expanded manufacturing footprints
  4. Tribal knowledge to intelligent systems and analytics
  5. Supply chains (controlled) to supply networks
  6. Documents and artifacts to metrics and decision-based models

Companies are pivoting from a hit something strategic for biotechnology to an “aim small, miss small” approach. Many companies are finding that acquiring partners is faster than making them. If we look at 2019 we see some clear patterns. The 2020 data is not consistent for many reasons.

  • Bayer picked up BlueRock for $240M. Cell therapies are currently focused on neurology, cardiology, and immunology, with a lead program in Parkinson’s disease
  • Boehringer acquired Amal therapeutics for $364M, Swiss biotech, focused on cancer immunotherapy and advancing first-in-class therapeutic cancer vaccines derived from its technology platform KISIMA
  • Astellas acquired Potenza Therapeutics $165M, portfolio of novel immuno-oncology (I.O.) therapies
  • Roche acquired Inception 5 for undisclosed amt., a drug discovery engine focused on developing innovative therapies in areas of high unmet medical need with small molecules. Official target of the program not disclosed.
  • Thermo Fisher Scientific (instrumentation company) acquiring the testing supplier Qiagen (molecular diagnostics) for $11.5 billion.
  • Molina Healthcare acquired the managed care company Magellan Complete Care for $820 million.

With Medicaid enrollment increasing, expansion of virtual health, broad adoption of home health, and remote work make targets that enable these functions more attractive.

Previous articleDriving innovation for patients with medical research
Next articleDigital twins land on your doorstep
Peter is a technology executive with over 20 years of experience, dedicated to driving innovation, digital transformation, leadership, and data in business. He helps organizations connect strategy to execution to maximize company performance. He has been recognized for Digital Innovation by CIO 100, MIT Sloan, Computerworld, and the Project Management Institute. As Managing Director at OROCA Innovations, Peter leads the CXO advisory services practice, driving digital strategies. Peter was honored as an MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award Finalist in 2015 and is a regular contributor to CIO.com on innovation. Peter has led businesses through complex changes, including the adoption of data-first approaches for portfolio management, lean six sigma for operational excellence, departmental transformations, process improvements, maximizing team performance, designing new IT operating models, digitizing platforms, leading large-scale mission-critical technology deployments, product management, agile methodologies, and building high-performance teams. As Chief Information Officer, Peter was responsible for Connecticut’s Health Insurance Exchange’s (HIX) industry-leading digital platform transforming consumerism and retail-oriented services for the health insurance industry. Peter championed the Connecticut marketplace digital implementation with a transformational cloud-based SaaS platform and mobile application recognized as a 2014 PMI Project of the Year Award finalist, CIO 100, and awards for best digital services, API, and platform. He also received a lifetime achievement award for leadership and digital transformation, honored as a 2016 Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leader. Peter is the author of Learning Intelligence: Expand Thinking. Absorb Alternative. Unlock Possibilities (2017), which Marshall Goldsmith, author of the New York Times No. 1 bestseller Triggers, calls "a must-read for any leader wanting to compete in the innovation-powered landscape of today." Peter also authored The Power of Blockchain for Healthcare: How Blockchain Will Ignite The Future of Healthcare (2017), the first book to explore the vast opportunities for blockchain to transform the patient experience. Peter has a B.S. in C.I.S from Bentley University and an MBA from Quinnipiac University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. He earned his PMP® in 2001 and is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Masters in Business Relationship Management (MBRM) and Certified Scrum Master. As a Commercial Rated Aviation Pilot and Master Scuba Diver, Peter understands first hand, how to anticipate change and lead boldly.