Pharmaceutical companies structure deals around specific drug assets with clear milestones. They lack established business models for collaborating with AI companies offering platform technologies, creating a significant hurdle for tech bio startups seeking partnership.

An industry veteran reveals that payers, wanting to keep their patient members happy, are highly sensitive to public demand. Pharmaceutical companies can leverage this by generating significant patient and physician interest, which pressures payers into providing more favorable formulary coverage.

Despite viewing the IRA's shorter negotiation window for pills versus biologics as "terrible policy," the biotech industry is not making its repeal a top legislative priority. Bigger fights like MFN and tariffs are consuming advocacy resources, forcing a strategic deprioritization.

Bio is creating a formal system for biotech companies to report challenges with the FDA. Bio will synthesize this feedback monthly and present it directly to FDA leadership, creating a novel channel to elevate systemic issues and improve accountability.

By forcing disclosure of the lowest net price, MFN could dismantle the system of confidential rebates. This is a problem for payers (health plans, PBMs) who use their ability to negotiate superior, secret rebates as a key competitive advantage. A transparent system creates a level playing field, eroding this value proposition.

True innovation in getting drugs to patients is not about pharma creating pricing models alone. It requires a multi-stakeholder partnership where payers, physicians, and manufacturers work together to solve problems for specific patient subgroups. This collaborative effort, not a unilateral one, is what truly saves lives and reduces costs.

Emerging MedTech companies often view Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) agreements as a silver bullet for market access. However, these contracts require significant post-agreement effort and may be more effective as a later-stage strategy after a company has established itself through other channels.

Walgreens prioritizes tackling barriers to medication access—such as cost and prior authorizations—believing that adherence can only be addressed once a patient can consistently obtain their therapy. This frames the two issues as a sequence, not parallel challenges.

To solve the insulin price bubble, Eli Lilly launched its own low-list-price biosimilar. However, insurers and PBMs initially refused to cover it because its low price and small rebate threatened their lucrative business model.