In 2022, the life science landscape exploded with innovative start-ups, collaborative developments, and future thinking. As we advance into a new era of scientific discovery, life science and health science communities are becoming progressively more interlinked, pushing medical boundaries like never before!
We predict big things for life sciences in 2023! Read on to learn about our predictions for the latest life science industry trends.
Life Science Trends for 2023
Collaboration and Consortium-based Life Science Projects
Digital Pathology and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Cloud First Technology
Genomic Data-driven R&D
Current Trends In Life Sciences
The newest life science trends are centred around equity of access and operational expansion.
The scientific community has demonstrated widespread collaboration between large and small organisations, public and private bodies and scientific experts and non-experts, to develop a multi-stakeholder operating system. An example of this can be seen in the reflection of the COVID-19 pandemic, which combined the efforts of scientists, healthcare professionals, policymakers, investment corporations and many more. This highlights the very concept of bringing in multiple representatives from the wider industry to achieve a better outcome.
Likewise, mergers and acquisitions will continue to unfold throughout all sectors of the life science space, whereby large biopharma capitals are being powered by a complex mixture of smaller biotechs.
Health Trends In Life Sciences
In a post-pandemic world, significant attention has been given to health science. In particular - the adoption of precision medicine into patient treatment pathways.
The delivery of precision medicine operates under the well-recognised slogan of getting ‘the right medicine, to the right patient, at the right time’. In enhancing the delivery of healthcare, and therefore achieving better patient outcomes, the prospect of precision medicine as an emerging life science trend is leading the current landscape.
We have seen worldwide growth in next-generation therapy companies over the last year, with cell-based and gene-based therapies being adopted by researchers for their potential to treat many currently intractable diseases. In late 2022, we saw the acquisition of Neogene by AstraZeneca, intending to provide access to next-gen T-cell therapies for targeting solid tumours. This is promising news for R&D, but it’s important to note the high price point of next-gen therapies, which as it stands, restricts their use in the current clinical setting. Finding a way to integrate these new technologies into the patient pathway will be a high priority for healthcare leaders moving forward!
Digital Trends In Life Sciences
Over the last 5 years, advancements in technology and IT infrastructure have optimised the world as we know it. For life sciences, digital technology is at the forefront.
The integration of digital pathology, whereby histopathology slides are turned into a digital image, has completely changed the way the practice of pathology operates. By digitally capturing a patient's slide image, a pathologist can now open, share and send cases for second opinion checks in a matter of seconds, to a consultant anywhere in the world. The digitalisation of the histopathology workflow has been proven to dramatically increase efficiency and reduce the turnaround time of patient results. The potential of digital pathology to revolutionise patient care is limitless - it really has pushed healthcare into the 21st century!
A trend which we predict to optimise life science communities further is the use of AI technology, with a searing focus on bringing these capabilities to cancer diagnostics. Whilst the number of patients waiting for a diagnosis is increasing as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of practising pathologists in the UK is predicted to drop drastically over the next five years due to retirement. To prepare for this pathologist’s downfall, clinicians will require AI assistance to speed up the turnaround time of diagnoses to treat patients effectively.
Technology Trends In Life Sciences
GlobalData’s Emerging Technology Trend Survey - Pharma 2019 report showed that 70% of pharma executives were to prioritise data protection and storage solutions for their investments for the years ahead, and this is certainly still in play. Many large organisations in the life sciences space have adopted cloud-first technology, with predictions for this trend to grow as we progress through 2023. The use of cloud technology will allow the life science industry to access and store data on the internet instead of a hard drive, which will encourage data sharing across the life science community.
The Future Of Life Sciences
While it is difficult to predict the future of life sciences due to the ever-evolving advancements in technology, research and our ability to apply these innovations to real-world developments, we are certain that it will be centred around data - not just generating it, but using it. Collaboration, AI developments, cloud technology and digitalisation will all help to analyse and interpret data effectively, which subsequently will accelerate concepts like precision medicine.
Achieving a data-driven scientific landscape, particularly with large-scale genomic data, will allow life scientists to follow through on pioneering pathways for a better, more robust future.
Why do we need life science data? Because the deployment of precision medicine depends on it.
FAQs
Is life science a growing industry?
Yes, and standing out is important. Utilising good website optimisation and marketing strategy will be key to ensuring your company thrives. Read our guide on creating SEO blogs for life sciences here.
Is life science in demand?
Yes, the life science market is booming post-pandemic, with scientific innovation being adopted globally. There are currently 12 High Potential Opportunity schemes relevant to life sciences, which is more than in any other sector. This supports the levelling up agenda for life science across the UK.
How will life science companies adapt to the increase in demand?
Increasing laboratory throughput will be critical to meet the increased demand. This will mean outsourcing tasks like a content strategy to neighbouring experts. Read our case study showing how Co-Labb has worked with a client to help their business grow here.