Life sciences

Market conditions continue to be challenging for the life sciences sector. Some of the key drivers to this have been:

  • Imminent loss of revenue from patents
  • Less return from R&D
  • Increased costs
  • Increased time frame for getting drugs to market
  • The continued consolidation in the sector


Many large pharmaceutical companies are driving cost cutting through their businesses in order to enhance the bottom line, others are merging to drive value through, some are restructuring (eg offshoring) and others are buying in phase 1 / phase 2 tested drugs to bolster their pipelines. All strategies carry inherent risks and it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the medium term.

Implications for the executive recruitment market

Europe seems to have borne the brunt of cuts with a number of country and corporate roles being consolidated. Many companies see more growth opportunities in the emerging markets and are restructuring to reflect this. There is also a fundamental change in marketing and sales with medical rep sales forces being downsized dramatically and the use of the internet and other targeted marketing strategies.

This has meant that where pharmaceutical has generally been a defence stock in tough markets it has come under considerable pressure of late. Some would argue that their R&D portfolios are undervalued but market sentiment seems to be that the inherent risk is still high and that the sector will consolidate further.

For biotechnology companies and smaller pharmaceutical development organisations this has led in many cases to a review of strategy. Partly as a result of the difficulties attached to obtaining funding and partly due to cost restrictions a number of senior management have been downsized, sometimes with private equity backers stepping in, sometime with responsibilities being spread across remaining staff. The market is rethinking its growth strategy and looking at more modest growth, maximising value of existing investment for a potential trade sale.

This has led to a number of senior pharmaceutical executives being in the market for some time. The raft of takeovers combined with downsizing have led to a pool of talent being made available to the market but with fewer opportunities available. It will be a continuing challenge for companies to both retain and develop individuals as they come under continued pressure to reduce costs but this may be a great opportunity for those with change management experience to add value.

It will remain a challenging time for the sector but one to watch.

Our response

Leveraging our extensive network and specialist market knowledge, we’ve had no difficulty locating executives capable of thriving in this market, recently completing mandates for the following key roles:

  • Group HR director - Major UK pharmaceutical company
  • Finance director - Leading biotechnology organisation
  • International finance director - FTSE 100 healthcare business
  • Director of sales - European healthcare products manufacturer


For a clearer picture of how we do things, read our case study on finding a CFO.