Dr Leigh Beveridge has released his personal outlook on what the next year is likely to look like for people working at the intersection of medicine, biotech and clinical research, with a focus on practical actions individuals can take.

“In late stage development, the volume of data, decisions and expectations has outgrown many of the systems people still rely on,” Beveridge said. “The next year will reward those who treat their own habits as seriously as they treat a protocol.”

Dr. Beveridge points to several shifts already visible. Remote and hybrid trial models have expanded since 2020, with some analyses suggesting a rise of around 30 percent in decentralised elements. Average development timelines for complex biologics still sit at roughly 10 to 12 years, while estimates often show that more than 60 percent of phase 3 trials do not meet their primary endpoints. Regulators are receiving submissions with far larger datasets, in some cases more than doubling over the past decade.

“At the same time, surveys continue to show that close to half of clinicians report symptoms of burnout,” he noted. “You cannot separate the science from the human capacity needed to run it.”

Global research spending in oncology and immunology continues to grow, with various reports placing annual investment in the tens of billions of dollars. Yet, Beveridge observes, many early career professionals now expect three to five significant career shifts over their working lives.

“That combination of rising complexity and shifting careers means individuals need clearer frameworks, not just more information,” he said.

What changed, and what people are getting wrong

According to Beveridge, three things have changed meaningfully in recent years:

• Trial designs have become more biomarker driven and adaptive.

• Expectations for diversity and inclusion in research have sharpened.

• The line between clinical, commercial and policy conversations has become more blurred.

“People often assume the main change is technology,” Beveridge said. “In reality, the big shifts are in expectations: evidence, inclusion and transparency.”

He believes many professionals are misreading the landscape in a few key ways:

• Treating new tools as solutions, rather than as amplifiers of existing habits.

• Underestimating how much communication and decision hygiene matter in complex teams.

• Focusing only on technical skill development, while neglecting their own energy and boundaries.

“If your calendar, your attention and your ethics are not prepared for the next year, new software will not fix that,” he said.

What is likely to get harder

Beveridge expects several pressures to intensify over the next 12 months:

• Evidence thresholds for new therapies will keep rising, especially in crowded indications.

• Scrutiny on trial diversity and real world relevance will increase.

• Competition for experienced clinical and data talent will stay high.

• Cognitive load on individuals in key roles will remain a quiet risk.

“We will see more situations where the science is strong but the story is unclear, or where teams are technically capable but thinly stretched,” he said. “That is where individual habits make a measurable difference.”

What will still work

Despite the complexity, Beveridge believes certain principles will hold.

“Disciplined curiosity, clear boundaries and inclusive thinking still travel well,” he said. “People who can connect clinical reality, robust data and human behaviour will stay in demand.”

He highlights three practices that will continue to be effective:

• Building range across disciplines, such as combining clinical knowledge with trial design and basic business skills.

• Using simple decision frameworks for personal commitments, rather than relying on intuition alone.

• Investing in communication, both in writing and in small group settings, to make complex ideas usable.

“In my own work, the combination of haematology, pharmaceutical development and management training has been more useful than any single degree by itself,” Beveridge noted.

Three scenarios for the next year

Beveridge outlines three broad scenarios for the coming year and the best actions individuals can take in each.

1. Optimistic scenario: Acceleration with support

In this scenario, funding remains stable, regulatory dialogue stays constructive and teams receive reasonable resources.

Best individual actions:

• Map your skills against the work your team plans over the next 12 months and target one or two specific capability gaps.

• Volunteer for one cross functional project that exposes you to a new part of the development lifecycle.

• Block regular time for deep work each week on high impact tasks, and protect it.

• Keep a short learning log to track what you are actually getting better at.

“This is the time to lean into growth, but with structure,” Beveridge said.

2. Realistic scenario: Incremental progress under pressure

Here, progress continues, but with tight timelines, competing priorities and ongoing capacity constraints.

Best individual actions:

• Conduct a one month audit of your meetings and commitments, and eliminate at least two recurring low value items.

• Use a simple pre decision checklist for major choices: evidence, objective, role, risk.

• Clarify expectations with your manager or team for the top three outcomes that matter this year.

• Build small peer support circles to discuss workload, ethics and boundaries.

“In the realistic case, you cannot control every variable,” Beveridge said. “You can control how you triage your attention and how you support those around you.”

3. Cautious scenario: Slower funding, higher scrutiny

In a more constrained environment, budgets tighten, projects pause and scrutiny rises on both costs and outcomes.

Best individual actions:

• Strengthen your core skills that travel across employers, such as analytic thinking, clear writing and basic financial literacy.

• Review your own professional risk exposure and update your CV, profiles and networks.

• Focus on doing a smaller set of projects to a high standard, rather than stretching across too many.

• Identify one or two community or volunteer roles that keep you connected to patient or public perspectives.

“In cautious conditions, depth and integrity matter even more,” Beveridge said. “You want your work to be trusted, even when plans change around you.”

Beveridge encourages readers to treat the next year as an experiment in deliberate practice.

“Pick the scenario that feels closest to your reality,” he said. “Choose one or two actions from that list, apply them for 30 days and record what changes in your workload, your energy and your results.”

He suggests revisiting that choice every quarter, adjusting actions as conditions shift.

About Dr Leigh Beveridge

Dr Leigh Beveridge is a physician scientist and senior medical director based in Victoria, Australia. He has worked across internal medicine, haematology and global clinical development, including senior roles in haematology and immunology programmes at Servier and Genentech. He holds an MBBS from the University of Tasmania, advanced degrees in pharmaceutical and medical device development from the University of Sydney, and an MBA from the University of California, Davis, where he also teaches in the Online MBA programme.

Media Contact
Contact Person: Dr. Leigh Beveridge
Email: Send Email
City: Carlton
State: Victoria
Country: Australia
Website: https://www.drleighbeveridgephysician.com/