Life Sciences at the Crossroads: Innovation, Access and Rising Healthcare Costs

Life Sciences at the Crossroads: Innovation, Access and Rising Healthcare Costs
December 1, 2025 12 mins

Life Sciences at the Crossroads: Innovation, Access and Rising Healthcare Costs

Life Sciences at the Crossroads: Innovation, Access and Rising Healthcare Costs

Innovation has always driven growth in life sciences. Yet today, it’s not enough to keep organizations relevant and resilient. As global healthcare changes rapidly, the future of care depends on how well leaders align their breakthroughs with real-world healthcare delivery, affordability and trust.

Key Takeaways
  1. Healthcare costs are rising — life sciences organizations must address the threat to talent budgets, reduce access gaps and prepare for further regulatory changes.
  2. A retail approach to delivery should be embraced, enhancing cost management and creating more tailored products or services.
  3. Embrace technology as an accelerant — the industry must continue driving advancements, learn from recent success and prioritize digital collaboration.

The life sciences sector stands at a critical point, where evolving risks and industry-redefining innovations are altering the rules of play. Rising healthcare costs and data risks, access gaps and workforce shortages have created significant headwinds. At the same time, innovations such as direct-to-consumer (DTC) retail models and GLP-1 breakthroughs are reshaping the industry.

The industry also finds itself in a unique position as both a supplier of expensive healthcare products and an employer with a duty of care to its employees’ health and wellbeing. It’s a dilemma that has led to internal tension between business growth and the reality of rising employee benefits costs.

Addressing these challenges and finding the balance between risk and opportunity requires a more integrated and strategic approach to innovation. One that balances growth with the industry’s purpose-driven commitment to the future of global health. Here, we explore these pressures in more detail, and the solutions that help organizations to mitigate cost increases, maintain their competitive advantage and win the talent war.

How Can Organizations Tackle Global Challenges with Innovative Approaches?

1. Address the Rising Healthcare Costs Threatening Talent Budgets

9.8% — the expected global average medical trend rate in 2026.1

The continual need for a highly-skilled workforce, combined with intense competition for talent has always driven the industry to offer generous benefits packages. Rising healthcare costs, however, make the increase for life sciences firms even more significant. In North America, the 2026 trend rate will reach 9.3%, up from 8.8% in 2024, challenging financial sustainability.2

In response, many companies are implementing tiered benefit structures to make healthcare more affordable for lower-paid employees. Voluntary benefits add flexibility and choice for employees, helping to offset increasing healthcare costs. Organizations enhance these options by prioritizing plan value, raising payouts, adding new covered conditions, and offering carrier offsets and integrated supplemental health benefits. 30% of life sciences organizations have also introduced low-cost primary care services through low copays, increased plan flexibility or waived deductibles, with 15% considering doing so.3

Lastly, a recent survey found that 31% of employers have already begun to integrate the management of specialty prescriptions — a major cost driver for firms — across medical and pharmacy benefit management.4 Getting to a state of predictable, manageable long-term costs aligned with organizational priorities allows life sciences organizations to create simpler, more transparent access to higher-quality medical and pharmacy services.

Quote icon

We are reaching a tipping point where employers may not be able to afford to absorb cost increases any longer. With action, that can change.

Jon Hamberg
Partner, Wealth Solutions
2. Reduce Access Gaps and Health Inequality for Employees

Rising healthcare costs are creating access gaps and health inequalities, furthering the pressure on public health services globally. In the U.S., the implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act5 will add further complexity, with private healthcare services becoming essential to providing support where public provision falls short.

In the face of growing access gaps, the life sciences industry is under intense scrutiny. As well as meeting the high employee expectations for robust medical coverage, the sector is under pressure to align strategic decision-making with its own mission to improve accessibility. Failure to confidently confront these challenges can leave organizations vulnerable to lower on-the-job performance and negatively impacted reputations.6

Lowering health disparities across the board and breaking down access gaps by enhancing the affordability of basic needs — such as medications and primary care — will need to become standard practice for life sciences organizations seeking more comprehensive healthcare strategies.

Improving cancer screening compliance and preventive care are becoming top priorities as organizations seek innovative strategies to remove barriers and improve their workforces' health. Holistic wellbeing and women’s and mental health support — alongside specialized care benefits — are also key drivers of healthcare improvements.

Others are exploring alternative healthcare delivery models — including variable copay plans and virtual-first plan designs — to reduce financial barriers to accessing care. Additionally, 50% of life sciences organizations offer, or are considering offering, paid caregiver leave to address systemic barriers created by access, plan design and personal circumstances.7

Today, employers with a benefits plan deemed ‘highly effective’ are not only achieving lower cost increases for themselves and their employees, but can also leverage this appeal to attract top industry talent.8

3. Proactively Prepare for Evolving Regulation

Regulation in life sciences is rising. Today, organizations face complex compliance from laws like GDPR, HIPAA, 21 CFR Part 11, China’s PIPL, and the EU AI Act. This environment can slow innovation, especially in evidence sharing, artificial intelligence (AI) model development and cross-border cloud collaboration.

To mitigate risk, life sciences organizations should treat data as critical infrastructure. It is not just another component to protect, but something to understand and control end-to-end through business processes and culture. Across the industry, the goal — despite regulation — is to enable innovation, not constrain it. This must be done in a way that is resilient, defensible and built for scale. That’s what successful modern leadership looks like today, though the approach will depend on the appetite for spend, risk and profitability.

Real-time tracking of legislative changes is enabling organizations to anticipate and adapt at pace, avoiding costly compliance failures. Organizations that combine in-house functions with external expertise can also tailor and develop more effective compliance strategies. This includes employee training and communication strategies that empower workforces to respond more effectively to legislative change. Proactive risk management can also include stress-testing regulatory impacts on operations and supply chains and utilizing tailored insurance and risk transfer strategies.

4. Personalize Benefits and Streamline Operations to Overcome Workforce Shortages

Life sciences organizations have traditionally leveraged comprehensive and competitive benefits to attract specialized talent, notably in the R&D and medical fields. However, changes to plan design have shifted costs to employees more than ever before.

11 million — the estimated shortfall of health workers by 2030.9

The industry faces pressure to maintain competitive benefits while managing costs, as even modest differences are noticeable to employees in this sector. Aon continues to have conversations with life sciences organizations about wellbeing, mitigating burnout and attracting and retaining talent. Worker shortages compound these issues, impacting organizations from an innovation, pipeline and R&D perspective, but also in terms of culture and productivity.

Sourcing skilled talent from new sectors and upskilling current employees can act as an innovative solution to healthcare workforce shortages. Organizations must reassess benefits and focus on furthering programs that support every life stage, from Generation Alpha to Baby Boomers, to cultivate thriving cultures. While 88% are advancing organizational inclusion and belonging strategies through benefits, only 12% rate their current wellbeing strategy as highly effective.10

Addressing workforce shortages demands a strategic shift. By streamlining research and development (R&D) and integrating AI and data into existing processes, life sciences companies can boost staff productivity. With more efficient operations, organizations can focus on upskilling current employees and identifying the most highly skilled talent to drive their business forward.

45%

The number of employees who feel more motivated to develop new skills to stay relevant in the life sciences industry.

Source: Employee Sentiment Study, Aon

Learn More

Where Are the Opportunities for Growth in Life Sciences?

1. Leverage Technological Advancements and Prioritize Digital Collaboration

Organizations are leveraging AI and other technologies to collect and use patient and clinical data to tailor more personalized approaches. AI unlocks unprecedented possibilities for those who integrate it successfully, transforming what industry leaders once thought impossible. As of 2025, 50% of life sciences organizations say they are either very or mostly comfortable leveraging AI in some form to improve support for health decisions, and 44% are interested in implementing predictive analytics to target high-risk individuals.11

AI is now successfully used in drug discovery and is considered one of its most promising applications in healthcare. AI algorithms can identify patterns in datasets and, for example, predict how one molecule may bind to a targeted protein. The result is reduced time and costs and more productive, focused drug discovery. Diseases once considered incurable can now be cured, creating significant opportunities for life sciences organizations in terms of revenue streams.

While these technological advancements offer innovative opportunities for life sciences organizations, data privacy is increasingly a concern for the public, especially regarding health data. Life sciences organizations must continue collaborating to accelerate innovation and invest in the right talent to manage data and protect it from cyber attacks.

Collaboration is the new normal when using data and embracing technological advancements. Whether joint ventures with tech startups, AI research consortia or outsourced R&D partnerships, life sciences organizations now operate in an interconnected digital ecosystem.

Collaborations between private organizations and government are also growing; the UK’s Life Sciences Sector Plan outlines up to £520 million available to invest in manufacturing projects and up to £600 million to build the most advanced health data system in the world.12 While this collaboration creates opportunities, proper governance will be key moving forward. In a world of evolving regulation, advanced digitalization and reputational damage, protecting personalized patient data has never been more critical.

10%

The percentage of life sciences employees unsure of the impact of AI on their jobs.

Source: Employee Sentiment Study, Aon

Learn More
Quote icon

Life sciences organizations can build on progress and accelerate innovation—shaping a future of greater access and impact.

Meaghan Piscitelli
Global Life Sciences Leader
2. Embrace a Retail Approach to Delivery

The growth of retail giants in the life sciences sector has profoundly reshaped the industry's structure. Pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device manufacturers are playing an increasingly prominent role in delivery, in response to the rise of direct-to-consumer (DTC). DTC channels are building a digital ecosystem to manage complex aspects of the treatment journey in a way the industry has not seen before. This move towards a more holistic, personalized and convenient patient experience includes steps such as titration, addressing side effects and underlying nutrition issues.

92% — the percentage of patients who report that their perception of the life sciences industry would improve if organizations provided one of various digital health solutions, such as sharing health data and digital pharmacy options.13

While this retail approach is new to certain areas of the industry, it also allows organizations to own the delivery of complex drugs, ensuring it aligns with their intentions. Following recent successes, enhanced delivery is also helping with efficient cost management.

DTCs are fundamentally reshaping the industry, and the relationship organizations have with consumers. The data that can be captured through this new relationship is a key opportunity to deliver a more tailored, efficient product or service and growth opportunities exist for traditional life sciences organizations that can embrace this shift.

3. Learn Lessons from Recent Industry Successes

Over the past five years, there have been numerous successes in the life sciences industry. Most notably, cell and gene therapies and GLP-1 breakthroughs have helped usher in a new era of innovation that must be built upon by organizations across the sector.

44% — The reduction in cumulative incidence of hospitalizations due to major cardiovascular events as a result of GLP-1 usage.14

There remains a deep connection to social impact as these innovative new drugs evolve. Gene and cell therapies, such as CRISPR technologies, eradicate diseases, halt or slow disease progression, and improve other health outcomes. These advancements open up significant opportunities for both society and life sciences organizations. The question is what lessons can be learned from these successes to continue driving innovation in other areas?

With the success of GLP-1s, lessons can be drawn from the market delivery and marketing process, including putting life-saving drugs into the hands of the right people at the right time and providing wraparound services to support patients undergoing complex treatments.

GLP-1s also address a challenge facing most life sciences organizations: rising healthcare costs. While the initial cost of GLP-1 medications is high for both employers and individuals, Aon research has uncovered that continuous use led to a 7 percentage point improvement in medical spend growth in the second year, driven primarily by lowered hospital inpatient health care costs among GLP-1 users. With 49% of life sciences organizations covering GLP-1s for weight loss, there is plenty of scope for further adoption — especially as increased uptake and innovation help drive down the cost curve.16

Aon Helps Organizations Embrace a New Era of Innovation

Amid rising healthcare costs, access challenges and workforce shortages, a promising future is emerging — shaped by remarkable technological advancements, DTC innovations and fresh approaches to talent management and benefits.

Leaders who embrace integrated, purpose-driven strategies can redefine their approach to innovation. It starts by looking inwards, with solutions to workforce challenges that build an engaged, motivated and resilient workforce. Supported by thriving and talented people, life sciences organizations strengthen their ability to deliver transformative scientific breakthroughs.

From human capital solutions that improve health, productivity and performance to creative and innovative risk management, Aon helps forward-thinking organizations see innovation from a new perspective.

1 The Global Medical Trend Rates Report 2026, Aon.
2 Ibid.
3 2025 Employer Benefits Survey Results — Life Sciences, Aon.
4 Employers Eye Transparency, Data Access to Confront Rising Health Care Costs, AJMC.
5 H.R.1 - One Big Beautiful Bill Act, U.S. Congress.
6 2025 Employer Benefits Survey Results — Life Sciences, Aon.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Health workforce, World Health Organization.
10 2025 Employer Benefits Survey Results — Life Sciences, Aon.
11 Ibid.
12 Life Sciences Sector Plan to grow economy and transform NHS, GOV UK.
13 Are pharma’s DTC platforms actually creating engagement with patients?, MM+M.
14 Workforce-Focused Analysis on GLP-1s: Research Findings and Methodology, Aon.
15 Ibid.
16 2025 Employer Benefits Survey Results — Life Sciences, Aon.

Aon’s Thought Leaders
  • Meaghan Piscitelli
    Global Life Sciences Leader
  • Farheen Dam
    Health Solutions Leader, North America
  • Jon Hamberg
    Partner, Wealth Solutions
  • Nancy McCarrick
    Senior Vice President, Health Solutions
  • Monique Muldoon
    Vice President, Health Solutions

General Disclaimer

This document is not intended to address any specific situation or to provide legal, regulatory, financial, or other advice. While care has been taken in the production of this document, Aon does not warrant, represent or guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, completeness or fitness for any purpose of the document or any part of it and can accept no liability for any loss incurred in any way by any person who may rely on it. Any recipient shall be responsible for the use to which it puts this document. This document has been compiled using information available to us up to its date of publication and is subject to any qualifications made in the document.

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