For the research, WTW polled 600 trade leaders within the well being and life sciences sector. Participants had been requested to rank what they felt had been the highest dangers to enterprise success within the subsequent three to 5 years:
Internal dangers
- Data privateness/knowledgeable consent (46%)
- Labeling and packaging (44%)
- Product security failure/product recall (40%)
- M&A dangers (39%)
- Talent acquisition and retention (38%)
External dangers
- Environment/local weather change/excessive climate (44%)
- Cost and availability of inputs together with supplies and power (43%)
- Cyber dangers (40%)
- Changing or growing laws (39%)
- Social inflation/rising value of litigation (36%)
Collaborations and M&A
The research discovered that corporations are specializing in collaboration and M&A over new merchandise.
“Industry collaborations emerged as the sector’s greatest opportunity over the next two years, named by 35% of respondents among their top five business priorities,” WTW mentioned. Thirty p.c named strategic acquisitions and trade collaborations amongst their high three strategic goals.
Conversely, solely 15% mentioned launching new merchandise was amongst their high priorities, whereas solely 12% named IPOs.
“This could reflect a desire to pause and recover after a high period of activity, including the rush to develop new vaccines,” WTW mentioned.
ESG dangers
Data privateness and knowledgeable consent points had been high of thoughts for a lot of within the sector, WTW mentioned.
“As the sector becomes more dependent on data to inform strategy and drive innovation, firms are also more conscious not only of the opportunities but also the risks this brings,” WTW mentioned. “With the rise of digital healthcare, life science companies are coming under increasing scrutiny from regulators, courts and the public for how they use patient data and how they obtain their consent.”
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Fifty-two p.c of survey respondents mentioned that improved information and information entry had been amongst their high 5 alternatives from digital transformation over the following three years. However, 46% mentioned information privateness and knowledgeable consent had been among the many high inner elements posing the best danger to their enterprise over the following few years, and 38% named information privateness as considered one of their high three ESG dangers.
Health and race fairness can also be changing into a extra urgent challenge for the sector. Fifty p.c of respondents mentioned well being and race fairness was among the many high three rising themes that may have a optimistic influence on the sector over the following three to 5 years, and 42% mentioned points associated to well being and race fairness and entry to drugs had been amongst their high three ESG social dangers.
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