Looking to 2030: Survey Report

How will the biotherapeutics industry change in the next decade?

How will the biotherapeutics industry look in 2030?

In March 2020, we surveyed a huge set of life sciences professionals representing every aspect of the global industry about the changes they expect to see over the next decade. With 432 responses, the results reveal unique insights into where those most central to the industry think the biggest opportunities and challenges lie in global pharma and biotech, and how they expect it to look in 2030. Here we have filtered out the overall results to look at the 206 responses from those working in biologics.

Insights

Click on any of the graphics in this report to explore the data further.

Demographics

The majority of respondents are based in Europe (57%) or North America (23%).

22% of respondents work for a consultancy or medical device company, followed by 18% at a pharmaceutical company.

Larger companies are best represented, with 52% of respondents representing organizations of 100 or more employees.

A majority of respondents work with medical devices (73%).

Which department(s) do you work in?

Of all 432 respondents surveyed, 24% work in partnering/business development, followed by 19% in drug discovery and preclinical, followed by 18% in clinical trials, commercialization, and regulatory affairs.

Opportunities and Challenges

Over half of all respondents predict Asia-Pacific will see the fastest growth in the life sciences industry in the next 10 years.

"Which geographical area do you think will see the fastest growth in the life sciences industry in the next 10 years?"

Most respondents predict that gene therapies are the therapeutic area that will see the fastest growth in the next 10 years.

"Which therapeutic area do you think will see the fastest growth in the next 10 years?"

The cost of drug development (19% of respondents) and technology innovation (18% of respondents) are seen as the biggest challenges facing life sciences in the next 10 years.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing life sciences in the next 10 years?

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Areas of Growth

"Which area do you think will see the fastest growth in the next 10 years?"

29% of respondents think gene therapies will see the fastest growth in the next decade, followed by biologics, cell therapies, immunotherapies, vaccines and antibodies.

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51% of respondents predict that oncology will improve the most over the next 10 years.

"In which of the following therapeutic areas do you think treatment will most improve in the next 10 years?"

Oncology

"Where do you think we will see the biggest advances in oncology in the next 10 years?"

35% of respondents predict that the biggest advances in oncology will be in gene therapies, followed by cell therapies, immunotherapies, antibody therapeutics and biologics.

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Technology

Respondents think AI/machine learning is the technology that will have the biggest impact on biologics in the next decade, with an average of 4.19 when asked to rank its impact from 1 to 5. Versus an average of 3.08 for virtual/augmented reality.

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"What impact do you think each of the following technologies will have on your field in the next 10 years?"

Increased innovation (42%) and speed (35%) are seen as the biggest benefits that emerging technologies will offer in the next 10 years.

"What is the biggest benefit you think emerging technologies will have on the industry in the next 10 years?"

"In your opinion what has been the biggest breakthrough in life sciences in the last 10 years?" Selected responses.

Artificial intelligence
Gene therapy
Crispr
Advances in immuno-therapy
Affordability of treatments
AI
Biologics
Biosimilars
Biotechnology
Cancer therapies
Communication channels
Digitalisation
Drug-Device combination products
Genome/Gene sequencing
Globalization
Immuno-oncology
Oncology treatments
Patient involvement
Personalised medicines and medical devices
RNA therapeutics
Robotics and machine learning
Stem cell research
Targeted drug therapy

"In general, what are the biggest changes you expect to see in the life sciences industry in the next 10 years? How will it look in 2030?"

"Automation and general adoption of mechanistic models. In-silico experimentation and process development. Continuous manufacturing as a standard. Widespread adoption of Process Analytical Technologies."

"Industrial revolution 4.0 is what some are calling it. We will create the next generation of digital factories that are highly efficient and automated with operators able to do their jobs remotely via advanced process control and analytics as well as robotics and augmented/virtual reality."

"Big data analysis and personalized medicine."

"Development of new biologics and stem cell research will increase life expectancy."

"I expect to see an increase in digitalization and of the use of modeling techniques to enable faster time to market in addition to improved optimization of drug candidates and processes. There will be an ever-increasing emphasis on modeling and automation to increase throughput and data acquisition.

"I think that treatment of diseases will take a more tailored approach to each specific patient rather than a more general approach. Each person is different and their bodies react differently to things. I think that is the wave of the future with respect to how we will find more effective treatments and have more successful outcomes. I also think that some are taking a more holistic approach to their health and so integrating some of those types of treatments will be more prevalent. More therapies that work with your bodies unique makeup and disease state.

"With the emergence of cell and gene therapies, there is an opportunity of curing instead of treating diseases. But they are not technically mature, and there is likely to be setbacks (e.g. fatal side effects) that have to be encountered, understood, and overcome.

"Unfortunately the growth of the larger companies swallowing up smaller innovative companies is stifling innovation. A more relaxed regulatory overview with companies having to take on more risk analysis and self regulation. A move away from centralized manufacturing to more versatile point of use capabilities."

"Nanotechnology development as well as other ways to provide precision medicine."

"Markets will continue to consolidate. Bigger players will continue to acquire smaller players. Gene and cell therapy approaches will be developing and will become more affordable."

"More complicated API/cell therapies designed predominantly by AI and developed using fully automated workflows."

"Increased application of AI to proteomics will improve our understanding of the interactions between uncharacterized proteins, and will Icreate a huge list of potential drug targets and their implications in various diseases. Because of machine learning, we will know more about more, and will be able to do more to help.

Diversity, Inclusion & Sustainability

Responses around representation within organizations are hopeful, as many respondents believe that both women and cultural/ethnic minorities are about equally represented in their company. However, 39% still think women are under-represented and 48% see cultural/ethnic minorities as under-represented. Whether these views are reflected in the true data is another issue entirely.

"How well represented do you think women and cultural/ethnic minorities are in your organization up to the most senior positions?"

Respondents were asked to give a rating from 1 - 5 for 'How important do you think sustainability should be when making decisions on the future direction of your company?' and 'What importance does your organization currently place on sustainability when making decisions on the future direction of the company?'.

It is clear that both individuals and companies place a fairly high importance on sustainability when making decisions, yet there is still a gap between the two. The average response rating for individuals is 3.8 / 5 - close to 'very important', whilst they see their company rating sustainability as 3.38 / 5 - closer to 'somewhat important'.