In a year marked by volatility, a transatlantic optimism gap has emerged between the pharma C-suite in the U.S. and their overseas counterparts, with Americans taking the glass-half-empty view, according to a recent Deloitte survey.
“The differences between how European and Asian biopharma leaders felt about where the industry was headed was a really stark difference to the United States,” said Pete Lyons, vice chair and leader of the U.S. Life Sciences practice at Deloitte.
About 90% of European and Asian leaders were positive or cautiously positive compared to less than 60% in the U.S., which was a “fairly sizable decline from when we did this outlook last year,” Lyons said.
Dampened optimism in the U.S. may stem from uncertainty in a market roiled by tariff threats, individual corporate pricing deals with the government, and mass layoffs and resignations at the FDA.
“I don’t think it's surprising given the volatility, uncertainty and all that's going on in the U.S., but I do think it's a pretty stark difference to see how, especially for a global industry, that you see such differences in how the executives view the world,” Lyons said.
While federal-level moves in the U.S., such as proposed tariffs and most favored nations policy driven deals, aim to shift some of the pricing burden onto companies outside the U.S., survey results show that some leaders don’t seem to be feeling the weight of those pressures just yet.
Despite regional differences, the overall outlook from the C-suite for 2026 is largely optimistic and in line with positive signs on the market.
“We’ve seen a rebound in the merger and acquisition activity,” Lyons pointed out.
Many experts predict that 2026 will be strong for M&A, following a multi-year dip. C-suite executives surveyed by Deloitte confirm this trend, with 45% identifying dealmaking as a top priority in the near future.
“In biopharma, appetite is returning for pipeline expansion and early-stage assets, with aggregate deal value in the first three quarters of 2025 exceeding the entire 2024,” the report stated.
Mergers and acquisitions aren’t the only way company leaders are hoping to address rising cost pressures in the new year. Nearly 50% of biopharma execs are looking to new drug launches to bolster the bottom line, but leaders also expect AI to drive growth and cut costs while they strive to improve R&D productivity and build their customer base, the report said.
Succeeding in those arenas will stay top of mind as pharma moves into the new year.
Emerging strategies in 2026
Direct-to-consumer options are likely to become a growing aspect of pharma’s commercialization strategies.
Pfizer and Eli Lilly have led the rise of DTC options through their platforms that sell blockbuster GLP-1s. Pharma companies across the industry are now exploring those and other innovative new ways to directly reach patients, which could represent a fundamental change to the current U.S. healthcare system. As DTCs expand beyond GLP-1s to other products, the market could shift to cut out the middlemen, including pharmacy benefit managers, Lyons said.
Eli Lilly recently announced that it will also roll out a direct-to-employer approach in 2026 to improve access to its weight loss drugs — which could also disrupt traditional insurance and payment models. Details of the plan need to be hammered out, but the approach would offer companies flexible benefit design options, access to a dedicated pharmacy network, and holistic third-party-run obesity management programs.
Beyond new commercial models, leaders are also hoping technology can help buffer downward pricing pressures.
“Leaders tend to recognize that future competitiveness is likely to depend on how effectively they harness AI to fundamentally reimagine how their organization works, makes decisions and delivers value — a view shared by nearly 80% of surveyed executives,” stated the report.
While many respondents said they’re investing in AI to improve efficiency, only 9% said they've seen a payoff. Nearly 30% of leaders surveyed, however, are confident that agentic AI systems, which are capable of carrying out limited tasks independently, will have a substantial impact on their organization in 2026. But for AI to pay off, companies need to change their practices.
“What it requires is moving beyond that experimentation and thinking: How do I build an agent to do one simple part of a process? And [then] trying to rethink the way that work gets done,” Lyons said. “When you put that lens on it, there’s tremendous potential for using these kinds of technologies.”
While the regulatory and geopolitical landscape will likely remain unsettled in 2026, companies can learn to stay ahead of the curve.
“You can look at that in two ways. You can say that uncertainty is a risk premium, meaning that it's going to be a greater cost to my business, and I need to think about how I manage that,” Lyons said, pointing out that uncertainty can also spur innovation. “I'd like to believe that as organizations face this, they can figure out how to innovate around it ... and come out the other side even stronger.”
