2025 life sciences outlook | Deloitte Insights

Evolving customer expectations could influence strategies in 2025

Customer preferences and expectations are likely to shape strategies in 2025 and beyond. Life sciences companies are navigating increasingly complex relationships among a wide range of customers including consumers, hospitals, health systems, and health care professionals, whose needs, incentives, and expectations diverge. In our survey, 36% of C-suite executives indicated that improving customer experience, engagement, and trust was very important and 29% said they were prioritizing investments in a customer-engagement strategy.

Biopharma organizations demonstrated significantly more urgency in addressing customer engagement needs compared to medtech companies. Specifically, 32% of surveyed biopharma executives viewed evolving customer engagement needs as a significant trend, compared to just 18% of medtech executives. Additionally, 32% of biopharma respondents considered investments in customer engagement and enabling technologies a priority for 2025, whereas only 24% of medtech respondents shared this view.

Life sciences companies are also using digital technologies to personalize customer interactions. For example, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine in Japan uses AI to tailor customer interactions based on feedback and preferences. Shuhei Sekiguchi, president and representative director of J&J Innovative Medicine in Japan, described the company’s approach during an interview: “In our commercial function, we are using AI to make sure that we’re taking in customer feedback, understanding their preferences, and then determining what our next interaction should look like and what channels we should use.”

Health care providers, including hospitals, health systems, and health care professionals (HCPs) are a core customer group for pharmaceutical firms and other life sciences organizations. However, only about one-third of HCPs say a pharmaceutical company’s customer-facing resources meet their needs, according to a 2024 Deloitte survey. By contrast, over 80% of pharma executives said they are satisfied with their current customer engagement strategy.³¹

While HCPs can be important influencers, health care consumers are increasingly acting as the “CEOs” of their health.³² Some consumers are turning to gen AI when making decisions about their care. They also are becoming more selective about their HCPs, and often demand increased personalization of therapeutics, frictionless support services, and technologies. In response, some life science companies have launched direct-to-consumer programs. In the United States, for example, Lilly announced a portal in early 2024 through which patients can purchase certain medicines directly from the manufacturer, often at a price lower than traditional channels.³³ A few months later, Pfizer launched its PfizerForAll consumer portal.³⁴ On the medical device side, Dexcom, a manufacturer of glucose monitors, recently released an over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor that can be purchased without a prescription.³⁵

Biopharma and medtech companies show some differences in addressing the consumer experience as well. While 54% of biopharma respondents look to simplify enrollment in patient-support programs, only 26% of medtech respondents share this focus. At the same time, both sectors are similarly committed to enhancing patient care journeys and providing personalized insights. More than half (52%) of biopharma and 44% of medtech respondents said they plan to customize patient-support programs or care journeys based on consumer needs. Additionally, 50% of biopharma and 44% of medtech respondents reported that they plan to offer consumers more personalized health insights.