Last week marked our 2-year anniversary since we founded Clymb. The famous quote, “The days are long, but the years are short,” has never resonated with me more than when I realized it has already been 2 years. It’s been a wild and fun ride so far—everyday is something new and if nothing else, it’s kept me on my toes. Anyone who has worked at a start-up company knows you don’t often get time to look back throughout the journey, but I felt compelled to briefly reflect on the last 2 years.

Market instability has made the Pharma and Biotech landscape a bit weird:

I’m using “weird” for lack of a better term and because I think it’s a pretty apt description of the market for the last 2 years. As I have met with people at conferences over the past months, there is only one thing that is absolutely certain: no one is certain about their own future or their company’s future. This is not a groundbreaking revelation when you consider the last two years have been a roller-coaster of layoffs and funding mishaps. For instance, 119 companies had layoffs in 2022, followed by 187 companies in 2023 (Fierce Biotech). In what was dubbed the “post-pandemic recalibration,” funding in biopharma in 2023 dropped 43.2% compared to 2022 and 52.3% compared to 2021. I could extend this point longer, but I think you get the gist.

What’s more is that we’re in a time of intense change mainly driven by the ever-permeating growth of AI. Some of us have bought in 110% to AI and are incorporating it as much as we can in our day-to-day lives. Some of us have rejected it entirely as the next fad, like the dot-com bubble of the late '90s. And then there are most of us, who have absolutely no idea what the future holds for us and AI.

When you consider the rocky economics in Pharma/Biotech and the subtle but innate suspicion that AI might replace some or all of your job, you get a market like the one we’ve been in…. not necessarily good or bad in my opinion, just weird. How these factors will play out over the next few years is a question for someone a lot smarter than me. But it will be interesting to see.

Innovate or wither:

Part of the reason I enjoy Data Services as much as I do is because there is an opportunity to work with so many different people and companies. I am always keenly aware of the people I am speaking with; you can learn a ton from listening to people talk about their companies and jobs. Having always been part of smaller organizations, I have learned that you tend to split your time between large established Pharma giants and smaller cutting-edge/disruptive Biotech. A constant throughout companies, regardless of their size, pipeline, or current financial status, is that there is an appetite for “something new.” In large part, it’s a sort of subtle rebellion against the legacy CRO models that everyone has had to rely on throughout their careers. “Something new” in 2014 meant offering different modalities (FSP, outsourcing, etc.) or talking about how many resources, skill levels, and case studies your company had. It doesn’t mean that anymore; it means actually innovating.

Our idea for innovation came from our Co-Founder, Bhavin Busa, when we originally started the company. Having a background in Statistical Programming and being in various leadership roles in Pharmaceutical and CRO companies, he has a unique perspective on the Clinical Data Services space. As we sussed out what a “new” Data Services company could look like, the blend of automation and services/outsourcing made all the sense in the world. From there came our push into TFL Automation. While I am proud of many things in the last 2 years, I am most proud of our team’s building and execution of TFL Designer. I am proud of it because it was a new concept; and new concepts are hard to create. They’re costly, they’re time-consuming, they’re difficult to build, and messy to manage. But, as we have seen, when you execute them and see your clients make tangible improvements using them, it’s well worth the effort.

Change is slow, but it’s here:

At the PHUSE US connect meeting this year, we had a fantastic keynote speech by Peter Ronco, CEO of Emmes. To illustrate his point that change in our industry is unusually slow, he showed some of the titles for the abstracts submitted to the conference (with names redacted). The titles were exactly what you’d expect to see—a lot of topical and interesting subjects using buzzwords we’ve all heard a lot of recently…Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Open Source, Insourcing, etc. The only problem was that these abstracts weren’t from 2024; they were from 2014. This highlight a pervasive theme that historically our industry likes to take it’s time to make a changes. It would stand to reason that the last few years of market instability have not helped drive change forward. However, although change is slow, it is definitely happening. Anyone with their finger on the pulse has started to see concepts become reality. Programming isn’t just done in SAS anymore; R has become increasingly popular. RAVE isn’t the de facto EDC system anymore; VEEVA and smaller players have gained ground. Proprietary systems aren’t kept under lock and key; open-sourcing your system or offering community solutions has become common.

For me, these changes give me great optimism about the future of our industry. It’s a sign of communal recognition and openness to new ideas to keep up with the pace of change. It’s all the more reason to continue down the path we’ve carved for ourselves in the past 2 years.

As always, thanks to all our employees, clients, and partners who continue to support us throughout the journey. We look forward to the next 2!

Colin Izzo

Principal & Co-Founder, Clymb Clinical