Industry Outlook 2025: Talent Up for Grabs

The post-COVID-19 era has seen the consequences of ambitious programs launched during the pandemic, according to Erik Wiklund, CEO of Circio, such as a lack of capital for small biotech and employee layoffs, and Wiklund sees this impacting the industry during 2025. “Many companies launch great ambitions, large valuations. People flow into the industry, and then the breaks set in, but then what happens is that the companies that survive, they then suddenly have access to a broad talent pool, and then the capital comes back,” Wiklund says. “So, I think the consequence of that is that you see some consolidation. You see access to talent, and you see new stronger companies emerge, and maybe that's what will happen now. After the reset in biotech, a broad set of companies are gone, but this may create fertile ground for the future successes once the capital markets and the industry start to normalize, and hopefully this will happen during 2025.”

This increase in available talent is a trend that Wiklund sees continuing in the coming year. “What we've seen is that there's been increasing cost levels in the [United States] in particular, strong dollar and increasing inflation has driven up prices,” Wiklund says. “Salaries are high, and I think that, to a certain degree, is starting to make European or other companies look elsewhere for development opportunities. It's become cheaper by comparison to develop drugs in Europe, Asia, and Australia, and I think maybe if that trend continues with a strong US economy and increasing prices, then you may see that kind of European, eastwards-oriented trend continuing.”

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About the speaker

Erik Wiklund, PhD, is CEO of Circio. He has deep scientific knowledge in RNA and cancer biology, and 13 years of pharma and biotech industry experience in a variety of functions including R&D, finance and business development. Previous employment includes the radiopharmaceutical company Algeta, which was acquired by Bayer in 2014, Aker Biomarine, and management consulting experience from the Pharma & Health Care practice of McKinsey & Company. Wiklund holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from Aarhus University, Denmark, and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, Australia.