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HBI 2026: Going Global — How life sciences businesses are navigating international expansion

The global market for life sciences businesses is undergoing a structural shift. China has emerged as more than just an end market, the United States remains central to any serious expansion strategy, and Europe finds itself with opportunities to expand on both sides of the continent. At HBI 2026, leaders who have successfully scaled their operations shared strategies, insights, and lessons learned, including common pitfalls in global expansion, and discussed where investors should focus their attention next.

US remains a key market 

Despite policy shifts, the US remains a key market.

“What’s interesting about the US is that about a year ago, when there were changes at the FDA and cuts to grant funding, some people expected companies to shift their focus toward Europe. But that hasn’t really happened,” said Amit Karna, Partner at investment firm Keensight Capital.

“Companies remain strongly focused on the US. If a company isn’t already operating there, it’s doing everything it can to enter the US market. We’ve continued to see this across our portfolio companies, other companies in the ecosystem, and even among potential new investments that we’re looking at,” he added.  

According to Emmanuelle Trombe, Partner at law firm McDermott Will & Schulte, US policies such as the Trump administration’s Most Favoured Nation (MFN) pricing initiative, which pushes US drug prices toward G7-level pricing, and the Biosecure Act, a policy designed to deter pharma and biotech companies from using certain Chinese service providers, are significantly impacting go-to-market strategies. 

Trombe described a “freezing effect” on transatlantic distribution deals, with new contract clauses attempting to control European pricing or allow termination if MFN policies bite. 

She further flagged the “rumours that pharmaceutical companies can withdraw products from the market, can defer launch or reorganise their operations in Europe from an end-to-end marketing operation model to a distribution-like model” due to these policy shifts.

“What we sometimes see in terms of deployment strategy is that, to keep optionality and mitigate regulatory risk, you might first enter into a partnership. That allows you to get closer to the technology, get a foot in the door, test the waters, and test the market before taking a larger position,” said Trombe. 

“It’s more a general point about entering the US: it’s a very large and very risky market that requires significant investment. To be able to grow in the US, you sometimes need to phase your approach,” she added.

On the question of manufacturing and market entry, Karna was clear that the approach depends on the type of business. 

For product companies, organic growth is possible by building out a local sales team or retaining an existing supplier and coordinating a structured scale-up plan with them. For vertically integrated businesses, the answer may be growth capex to build US capacity directly. 

Service businesses can often generate significant US revenues by providing services from Europe. Many of Keensight’s European portfolio companies already derive 30–40% of revenues from the US, as per Karna, though an on-the-ground presence still adds meaningful uplift. Across all models, acquisition remains an attractive entry route.

“We wouldn’t say we prioritise M&A,” said Karna, “but we would absolutely be happy to do an acquisition to enter the US, as opposed to building organically.”

Deploying AI while scaling internationally

One of the key themes that panellists focused on while scaling internationally was leveraging AI.

“The US is the most data‑rich healthcare environment in the world. Any US go‑to‑market strategy now has to take advantage of the potential of agentic AI,” said 

Sarah Rickwood, VP, Thought Leadership EMEA, IQVIA, a global provider of analytics, tech solutions, and clinical research services to the life sciences and healthcare industries.

“Companies also need to recognise that, just as AI is transforming internal processes in pharma, it is changing how life sciences companies engage with healthcare professionals, and how those professionals engage with patients,” Rickwood added. 

Karna’s approach is deliberately stepwise, guarding against fragmentation and the assumption that AI reduces headcount.

‘AI is a disruptive technology, and it’s understandably scary — not only if margins are under pressure on the pricing side, but one of the few levers left is to reduce development costs and timelines, which have increased significantly. AI has the potential to do exactly that by optimising and shortening development,” said Trombe.

In terms of the risks, the legal dimension is where companies are most exposed.

“There’s a whole chain of potential liability, with multiple deep pockets, exactly the kind of situation product-liability lawyers find attractive. This is likely to be a major area of change in the coming years, and something companies need to think about when drafting contracts, especially around indemnities,” she said. 

For Rickwood,  “The biggest risk to pharmaceutical companies and life sciences plants is being trapped in a structure and business model that is no longer fit for purpose, when the market is moving very fast and is extremely volatile.”

“It’s not just about agentic AI. It’s also about making sure that you have networks of the right partners, you have a mindset and a team that can discard things fast and pivot, which is obviously quite difficult often, but then you’re embracing the technology at the speed at which the technology is usefully available to you,” she said. 

The Asia opportunity 

Beyond the US, Asia is increasingly seen as more than a mass market. Investors and companies are seeking local partners and innovation, from primary healthcare to specialised pharma and healthtech.

Rickwood pointed to the obesity market as a case study in why Asia can no longer be treated as secondary. With semaglutide losing patent exclusivity this year across markets representing roughly 38% of the global obese population, including China, Brazil, and India, a self-pay, mass-market, digital-health-powered consumer environment is rapidly taking shape.

“The Chinese companies are definitely looking beyond their domestic market for their oncology, immunology, and obesity products. The fact is, they have an extremely large domestic market as well. They will seek to be global players. In some cases, we see a global, top ten Chinese pharmaceutical company in the next decade,” she added.

Trombe added that large Chinese pharmaceutical companies are no longer merely licensing assets to Western partners — they are seeking co-promotion rights in the US and building operations on the ground. “That’s a real change of paradigm,” she said.

Conclusion – what comes next for investors

Global growth requires looking beyond any single market. A tri-polar world is emerging, with the US, Europe, and China each playing distinct roles. European companies are seasoned across multiple domestic markets and often focus on the US and China simultaneously, while US companies expanding internationally tend to look at Europe first — a difference that could be a structural advantage in a multi-polar market.

We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Hemani Vipul Sheth or call 0207 183 3779.