Healthcare and Pharma Trends in 2025
As 2024 draws to a close, the team has been busy looking ahead to 2025 and identifying the key trends and talking points poised to shape the future of healthcare and pharma. In this blog, we explore some of these predictions, with insights on the major topics we anticipate will dominate the industry in the coming year.
A greater focus on mental health urgent care
Mental health urgent care is emerging as a pivotal component in addressing immediate psychiatric needs, providing specialised services to individuals experiencing mental health crises. These facilities are designed to blend mental health expertise with emergency care, effectively bridging the gap between traditional emergency services and routine outpatient treatment.1
As we look toward 2025, the International Longevity Centre UK is spearheading a global initiative to enhance healthcare policies, aiming to mitigate the impact of acute mental health conditions throughout individuals' lives. During a recent workshop held alongside the United Nations General Assembly in September 2024,2 key focus areas were identified. These include the need to prioritise serious mental health issues proportionate to their disease burden, ensuring that diagnosis, treatment, and access evolve with our increasing life spans. Additionally, the project seeks to capture the social and economic challenges posed by conditions such as major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and PTSD, and to explore how the United Nations can assist low- and middle-income countries in developing robust mental health policies.
- Bethan Jeffreys-Jonah, Medical Writer
Increased patient support for those on immunotherapy
One of the possible trends in 2025 is an increased need for support for patients on immune-oncology (IO) therapies. A treatment capable of harnessing the power of your own immune system to prevent, control and eliminate cancer, IO has become one of the pillars of cancer treatment alongside the more traditional therapies, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy.
So why the need for increased patient support? Well for starters, IO is complicated. With various types with different targets, many people undergoing IO may feel a little unsure of how it works and why. In addition to this, like all medicines, there is a risk of side effects. However, side effects with IO need to be treated differently to other therapies. For example, diarrhoea, common with chemotherapy, poses a serious risk to people on IO therapies. This is because there is potential for the immune system to become overactive and attack healthy cells by mistake. Therefore, this type of diarrhoea needs to be treated as soon as possible to prevent further complications. It is this complexity that necessitates robust patient support to ensure patients understand their treatment and manage side effects proactively.
- Liz Walder, Patient Experience Director
AI expansion in clinical trials
There is no escaping AI, whether it be in day-to-day online curiosity or working with highly sophisticated software. Clinical trials are no exception with AI helping to streamline various stages, from study design to data analysis.
AI tools such as HINT and SPOT have enhanced trial design by predicting outcomes based on drug molecules, target diseases, and patient eligibility criteria. Patient recruitment, a traditionally lengthy process, has been accelerated through AI systems like Trial Pathfinder, which can compare completed clinical trials and assess how adjusting participation criteria can increase patient pools without reducing safety concerns.
Looking ahead to 2025, the use of AI in clinical trials is expected to deepen, offering more sophisticated data management and patient interaction capabilities. This could include the widespread use of 'digital twins', reducing the number of participants needed for a clinical trial. This innovation allows AI to predict how a patient would progress in a control group based on experimental data, facilitating a comparison of results. AI is anticipated to significantly aid researchers in managing large volumes of clinical trial data. Novartis has reported using AI to extract data from unstructured reports, annotate images or lab results, and even predict missing values to add missing data points.3
- Ben Clark, Medical Writer
More trials becoming hybrid
As we look to 2025, the healthcare landscape is shifting with the rise of hybrid clinical trials — a potential game-changer in global drug development if we can get the balance just right. This approach combines traditional site-based trials with the flexibility of decentralised methods, greatly improving patient accessibility.
Imagine the possibilities: a fivefold increase in participation, especially for those who faced location or mobility barriers, thanks to advanced telemedicine. Beyond better access, hybrid trials enhance data collection using wearable tech and Internet of Things (IoT), offering precise, real-time metrics that could transform our understanding of patient outcomes. Consider the benefits: by reducing costs related to site operations and participant travel, these trials create a more efficient path to potential drug approvals. However, challenges such as ensuring data security and maintaining patient engagement remain.
The solution? Secure digital platforms and advanced remote monitoring tools that keep patients connected and trials running smoothly. As the industry embraces this change, adopting these technologies will be crucial for realising the full potential of hybrid trials.
- Sonal Patel, Content Director
Increased pressure to meet diversity targets in clinical trials
The pressure to meet diversity targets in global clinical studies has been rising steadily and set to intensify by 2025, with the FDA's new diversity guidance becoming mandatory. Pharma companies will be required to submit diversity action plans upfront, ensuring trials include participants from various races, ethnicities, genders, and age groups.
This shift necessitates more targeted patient recruitment strategies and strengthened community engagement to ensure clinical trials reflect the populations they serve. Building trust with underrepresented populations through partnerships with community leaders and advocacy groups is vital. Furthermore, culturally sensitive communication is crucial, as recruitment materials must be tailored to different audiences with appropriate language, imagery, and outreach methods. Decentralised trials will be instrumental, utilising virtual platforms and mobile health tools to enable participation from diverse locations without travel barriers. Expanding trial sites to underserved or minority communities will provide better access, while training clinical teams on unconscious bias, cultural competence, and inclusive patient care will foster a more welcoming environment.
These strategies are essential to meeting diversity targets, making clinical studies more inclusive and representative, and ultimately improving patient outcomes.
- Harriet Karia, Managing Director
More direct-to-patient recruitment
Moving into 2025, another notable trend that we anticipate is the growing use of digital platforms to connect with patients. Social media, mobile apps, and online communities are proving their worth as powerful tools for engaging potential participants and keeping them connected throughout the trial process. These platforms enable researchers to communicate directly with patients, addressing their questions and concerns, and demonstrating their understanding of the patient experience and commitment to improving it.
Given the ongoing pressure from regulatory bodies, direct-to-patient recruitment through digital channels offers access to previously hard-to-reach patient populations. By combining digital approaches with innovative methods — such as conducting trials from mobile or community locations, or even fully virtual trials that eliminate travel requirements — there is significant potential to make meaningful advances in this area.
We expect pharmaceutical companies to continue to move towards more comprehensive recruitment strategies, leveraging traditional methods like physician referrals and community outreach, while also utilising digital channels to reach a wider audience. By integrating these strategies, researchers can enhance their ability to connect with potential participants and build their trust, ultimately leading to an increase in patients considering clinical research asa viable care option.
- Jon Hume, Commercial Director
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