The State of the Biopharmaceutical Industry 2026 Edition

A range of macroeconomic and geopolitical factors, along with the rise of emerging technologies such as AI and automation, are shaping the current business landscape. While the adoption of technologies can offer solutions to operational and efficiency challenges, businesses still face issues such as supply-demand imbalance, market volatility, and geopolitical tensions. Although the pharmaceutical industry is often considered as recession-resistant, it is not immune to challenges. Factors such as constraints on drug pricing and reimbursement (P&R), the evolving regulatory landscape, uncertainties surrounding tariffs on pharmaceuticals, the introduction of international reference pricing (IRP) to the US, legislation such as America First and the BIOSECURE Act, as well as pressures to innovate and to address environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues will continue to pose challenges to the pharmaceutical sector in the coming years. In this The State of the Biopharmaceutical Industry report, GlobalData examines the business environment, challenges, and trends that are going to impact the biopharmaceutical industry in 2025. The report highlights the most impactful emerging technologies, industry trends, regulatory trends, and macroeconomic factors that are going to impact or dominate the industry over the next 12 months.

• AI, immuno-oncology, increasing cost of clinical trials, and personalized/precision medicine were rated as the most impactful emerging industry trends for the next 12 months.
• Trends identified to have the greatest impact on the industry by surveyed pharmaceutical professionals were AI in the pharma value chain, delay in generating product revenue due to pricing and reimbursement processes, and supply chain challenges.
• The largest proportion of surveyed pharmaceutical professionals ranked the actions of the Trump administration as the top positive emerging regulatory and macroeconomic trend, while the same was also ranked as the top negative.
• MFN pricing, alongside drug price constraints in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), add more pressure on drug pricing
• Most respondents see opportunities in collaboration with China and believe partnerships will continue.
• 52% of survey respondents felt optimistic or very optimistic about the biopharmaceutical industry's growth prospects in 2025.
• 39% of pharmaceutical industry professionals surveyed reported optimistic or very optimistic sentiment on the recovery of biotech funding in the next 12 months - up from 24% in May 2025.
• Biosimilar competition and price linkage requirements have the potential to drive down the prices of both originator reference products and their biosimilars.
• Survey respondents believe that the EU and US will see the most investment in the next 12 months, followed by the EU and China.
• Top selling drugs for 2026 are expected to be Eli Lilly's Mounjaro, rising from sixth to third place, while Novo Nordisk's Wegovy joins the top 10 at eighth place.

Scope

• Benchmark the impact of major themes on the biopharmaceutical industry in the next 12 months, including: emerging technologies, regulatory trends, macroeconomic trends, and industry trends.
• Identify themes that will have the greatest positive or negative impacts in the next 12 months.
• Capture opinions on these themes from industry experts.
• Predict the industry's growth prospects in the next 12 months.

Reasons to Buy

• Understand the business environment and the industry, regulatory, and macroeconomic trends shaping the biopharmaceutical industry in the next 12 months.
• Analyse the impact of major themes on the biopharmaceutical industry in the next 12 months.
• Identify themes that will have the greatest positive or negative impact in the coming months.
• Comprehend the opinions of industry respondents on these themes.