Artificial intelligence
In 2025, made or projected biopharma workforce cuts affected about 42,700 employees, according to BioSpace tallies. BioSpace takes a deep dive into which companies and locations were impacted and speaks to experts about what to expect ahead—and why.
With zasocitinib, Takeda is looking to challenge Bristol Myers Squibb’s kinase inhibitor Sotyktu, for which the Japanese pharma is running a head-to-head study in plaque psoriasis. Takeda expects to file for zasocitinib’s FDA approval next year.
Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker said during the company’s Q3 call that it is “not done” with deals—a promise he delivered on with Tuesday’s solid tumor pact with AI-focused Caris Life Sciences.
At the heart of the deal is Relation’s Lab-in-the-Loop platform, which uses AI models to improve understanding of diseases and guide clinical development programs.
The agency’s sweeping rollout and staff challenge underscore rising momentum behind agentic AI: advanced, multiagent systems now fueling early pilots in medical writing, patient engagement and regulatory workflows across the industry.
With new UK clinical trial rules landing in 2026, the EU Biotech Act on the horizon and China and Australia gaining ground, CROs are zeroing in on study timelines, AI/ML and data privacy as the industry’s next pressure points.
Agentic AI can help FDA staff manage meetings, conduct pre-market reviews and validate reports, among other tasks, though the agency emphasized that using this technology is optional for its employees.
As bispecifics, ADCs, protein degraders, and AI-designed mini-proteins move into the clinic, discovery teams face a new bottleneck: engineering and producing molecules whose complexity challenges conventional workflows.
In 2025, landmark obesity drug deals, China’s biotech surge, and AI’s deeper integration into pharma operations drove a year of transformation and renewed momentum for life sciences.
The upheaval of the Health and Human Services workforce and leadership leaves much to be desired in terms of delivery, recently retired FDA Chief Information Officer Vid Desai tells BioSpace, but the regulatory agency is evolving to be more open to much needed change.
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