Healthcare’s Premier Industry Advisor

Over the last few years, the biotech market has grappled with a global pandemic, numerous drug shortages, burdensome supply chain disruptions, escalating trade tensions, and a difficult funding environment. Underlying these broader issues is the threat to each nation’s biosecurity. Historically, the term has mostly referred to practices that prevent the spread of harmful pathogens, such as disinfection or quarantine. Today, nations have broadened the term to encompass practices that improve the health of their biotech industries. After all, fostering domestic biotech innovation with self-sustaining, high-quality supply chains inarguably does bolster a nation’s biosecurity. On the other hand, enabling a country’s biotech startups to access foreign, low-cost supplies and services also fosters domestic innovation. Providing citizens with expedited access to breakthrough treatments approved in foreign countries also bolsters a nation’s biosecurity. China, as the world’s fastest-growing hub for biotech development, manufacturing, and research services, is now causing western nations to grapple with this delicate balance; some through domestic stimulus and others through punitive restrictions. As the current market leader in biotech innovation, the US seems to favor the latter approach.

The Autumn Budget 2024 is the first budget by a Labour Government in more than a decade. On 30 October 2024, Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered a one-year budget (Phase 1) setting out both an updated 2024/25 spend and planned funding for next year. A longer-term Spending Review will follow in Spring of 2025 (Phase 2). A public audit in July 2024 showed that the new Labour Government inherited a budget deficit with a projected overspend of £22 billion in 2024/25. Therefore, this Budget’s objectives are to keep public spending on a sustainable path, grow day-to-day departmental spending to support public services, and to boost capital investments with a greater focus on value for money and long-term growth. This is a significant event for investors in healthcare and provider entities as it highlights the Labour Party’s priorities and ambitions. In this publication, Marwood provides an overview of key budgetary announcements that affect the health and social care sectors in the UK.

In recent years, the European Union (EU) has commenced several reforms in the life sciences sector. However, to drive the EU towards a more competitive environment in the health and life sciences sectors, more needs to be done. This is the assessment of Mario Draghi’s new competitiveness strategy, published in September 2024. In the second of a two-part series, Marwood examines how the recommendations from the European Commission’s (EC) new competitiveness strategy will steer the EC’s work to improve attractiveness in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital health. In this piece Marwood provides insights on the impact that the new recommendations may have on the EU’s AI and digital health sector over the next few years.

The European Union (EU) has undertaken several reforms in the life sciences sector, such as in pharmaceuticals, clinical trials, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and digital health. To guide the EU on a path towards a more competitive environment in the healthcare and life sciences sectors, the European Commission (EC) published a new competitive strategy in September 2024, and its findings will steer the EC’s work to improve its attractiveness to this industry. In the first of a two-part series, Marwood analyses how these recommendations may develop over the medium-term and assesses the impact they may have on the EU’s pharmaceutical and clinical trials sectors.

Following the two-year anniversary of the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Marwood takes a closer look at the state of clinical trials. In this piece, Marwood analyzes the IRA’s potential impact on clinical trial starts for industry-sponsored mid-(Phase II) and late-stage (Phase III) trials. Additionally, Marwood examines Phase I trial starts, which is likely more closely linked to early-stage biopharma companies. Marwood notes that for early stage companies the current challenging capital market environment may also be an influence on clinical trial activity.