Hello, and thanks for joining us for another edition of the Beghou Biopharma Review by Marc Iskowitz.
When I asked Star Therapeutics' Head of Commercial Operations, Jacob Lai, about trends impacting go-to-market strategy, he singled out Most Favored Nation (MFN) pricing and AI. In this edition of the Beghou Biopharma Review, we examine these two forces, which defined the year's first half. MFN introduces new complexity into global pricing and launch sequencing. AI, meanwhile, is emerging as a critical tool for modeling scenarios and coordinating decisions across markets. As such, it provides the capability to manage MFN’s complexity, but there are some real barriers, including a problem with organizational adoption.
When the Trump administration revived MFN pricing in May 2025, many in the industry viewed it as another policy proposal with an uncertain future. But a year later, commercialization leaders are changing their thinking.
More biopharma companies are reconsidering the timing, and in some cases the desirability, of launching in lower-priced European markets to avoid triggering downstream pricing consequences. Even if the final shape of MFN remains unclear, U.S. price referencing is accelerating investments in global launch modeling, scenario planning, and closer coordination between U.S. and ex-U.S. pricing teams.
The takeaway: Don't wait for policy certainty. Companies that build pricing resiliency now will be better positioned regardless of how MFN ultimately unfolds.
What to do now:
The biggest implication here is probably the importance of more coordination on global launch and pricing decisions. 👀Read my piece here.
Nearly every biopharma company has an AI strategy. Far fewer have an AI adoption strategy. New Beghou research presented at PMSA challenges several assumptions about why AI initiatives succeed or stall. Among the biggest surprises is that enthusiasm doesn't necessarily translate into meaningful usage, younger employees aren't inherently faster adopters, and analytics teams aren't uniformly ahead of their commercial peers.
Instead, adoption is shaped less by function or age than by individual mindsets and organizational culture. The research identified eight AI adoption personas, five of them influenceable, suggesting that a one-size-fits-all rollout is unlikely to unlock AI's full business value.
The takeaway: AI implementation is fundamentally a change-management challenge, not a training challenge.
What to do now:
In short, the biggest obstacle isn't the technology but “meeting people where they are.” 🧐Check out my writeup on the research here.
On the latest episode of The Space Life Sciences Podcast, I sat down with Jacob Lai, Head of Commercial Ops at Star Therapeutics. We discussed how biotech’s resurgence is impacting go-to-market, his experience building commercial organizations, and how companies are becoming more disciplined about capital allocation.
Q: How is biotech's resurgence influencing go-to-market?
Jacob: The industry has learned some hard lessons over the past few years. Companies are being much more selective about where they invest and much more capital efficient. That discipline isn't going away.
Q: What will have the biggest impact on commercial operations over the next year?
Jacob: You really can't talk about go-to-market today without talking about two things: MFN pricing and AI. MFN has the potential to reshape launch sequencing and global pricing strategies, while AI is changing how commercial teams process data, automate work, and make decisions. We're still in the early stages of both, but they have the potential to fundamentally change how we commercialize products.
Q: What's the biggest piece of advice you'd give an emerging biotech preparing for launch?
Jacob: Start earlier than you think you need to. Commercial planning shouldn't begin a year before launch. It should inform development much earlier. Build your commercial infrastructure with enough lead time, especially your data and analytics capabilities. The first six months after launch largely determine a product's long-term trajectory, and once you're on the market, there's very little room to recover from execution mistakes.
🎧 Listen to the full podcast here.
Our upcoming webinar, "Making AI Work for Your First Launch: Where It Drives Commercial and Medical Impact and Where It Doesn't" on July 15 at 11 AM ET, is designed for life sciences leaders preparing for a first launch. Beghou's Rahul Chouhan and Nicole Ventrone, joined by Troy Unfried, Sr. National Sales Director at SpringWorks Therapeutics, will share practical frameworks to identify which AI use cases are worth pursuing and how to ensure your investments connect to launch-critical commercial and medical milestones. Register here.
Our upcoming presentation at the Orphan Drug Summit (July 13–14, Boston, MA) will feature Beghou's Vishal Singal on "Taming the Complexity in CGT Commercialization." The session will cover how to navigate 2026 FDA milestones shaping rare and orphan pipelines, move from laboratory builds to scalable operations, and sustain patient access by aligning U.S. regulatory pathways with real-world outcomes Learn more.
That’s it for now. If you’re looking for more context on any of these stories, drop me a line at marc.iskowitz@beghou.com
Thanks for reading,
Marc Iskowitz,
Editorial Director, Beghou