April 1, 2026 — Biopharma companies risk falling behind as a wave of patent expirations threatens up to $400 billion in annual global sales, according to industry consultant and Nmblr founder Janice MacLennan, who is urging firms to rethink how they develop commercial strategies.
MacLennan said “insight gaps” within organizations — driven by siloed teams and fragmented data — could prevent new therapies from reaching their full potential, even as competition intensifies across key therapeutic areas such as oncology, inflammation and neurology.
“With patent cliffs of unprecedented scale looming, biosimilars are not just competing with old drugs but they are making it harder for new innovations to cut through. Coupled with increasing innovation competition in key therapeutic areas, including oncology, inflammation, and neurology, it’s never been more critical for biopharma teams to go deeper; to move beyond disconnected data and uncover the insights needed to unlock behaviour change with living commercialisation strategies built around clearly defined and externally grounded value narratives,” MacLennan said.
Patent cliffs occur when exclusivity periods for blockbuster drugs expire, opening the door to lower-cost generic or biosimilar competition. MacLennan warned that without a shift toward more integrated and insight-driven strategy development, companies could struggle to compete in a rapidly evolving market.
After three decades in the industry, she is calling for organizations to move away from what she described as a “data-rich, insight-poor” approach and instead adopt more collaborative, real-time methods for understanding market dynamics and customer needs.
“If teams don’t take action now to break down internal silos, true insight will remain out of reach, strategy by consensus will continue to dominate, and falling victim to market volatility, patent cliffs and increasing competition will become more likely,” she said.
To address these challenges, MacLennan has introduced a new toolkit designed to help cross-functional teams align on strategy and better interpret market signals. The platform, part of Nmblr’s broader technology ecosystem, includes modules focused on mapping patient journeys, understanding stakeholder engagement and tracking competitive trends.
“Commercialisation strategy too often develops in fragments, with different teams holding different data, priorities and assumptions,” MacLennan said. “Nmblr’s Discover toolkit changes that dynamic. By bringing insights into a shared, living strategy space, teams can work together, align around what patients actually experience, who genuinely influences decisions, and where the competitive landscape is shifting. When that picture is visible and actionable across functions and geographies, organisations stop second-guessing each other and start building strategies that reflect market reality — not internal consensus.”
MacLennan added that the approach is intended to help companies challenge assumptions, identify risks and opportunities, and develop strategies better suited to an increasingly competitive and uncertain global market.
