Ali Pashazadeh, Treehill CEO Featured in BioSpace

Ali Pashazadeh, Treehill Partners CEO, joined industry leaders in a BioSpace virtual discussion on 20 September, 2025, examining how pharma and biotech companies are navigating unprecedented market pressures through AI adoption, operational efficiency, and strategic collaboration.

Key Insights

The Funding Crisis:
Healthcare investing has become significantly more difficult across venture, mid-cycle, and licensing-stage arenas. Market saturation in certain disease areas and uncertainty about exit and/ or commercial opportunities have compounded the challenge. Many companies lack the management capabilities to advance Phase II/III assets to market, making them difficult to fund.

Clinical Development Inefficiencies:
Treehill’s analysis of 1,200 mid-stage programs revealed that 90+% lacked commercially relevant target product profiles while a vast majority further contained material design errors. However, Dr Pashazadeh identified potential for 30+% cost savings in Phase II/III development through more efficient strategic orientation in development and streamlined operations.

Manufacturing and Tariff Response:
Single-jurisdiction manufacturing is no longer viable. Companies developing molecules e.g. in China need global studies, and U.S. manufacturing presence is now essential. Strategic flexibility across multiple geographies is critical for survival, particularly as tariff pressures reshape supply chains.

AI Adoption Reality:
Dr Pashazadeh offered a stark prediction: only 10-15% of current biotechs will exist in five years. While AI will help that minority survive, only 5-10% of companies large and small are actively embracing the technology, with 60-70% resistant and hoping for established legacy methods to be sufficient.

The Ownership Mindset:
The discussion concluded with Dr Pashazadeh’s call for a fundamental mindset shift: moving beyond the siloed mentality of “I’ll do my phase, and the next phase isn’t my issue” to taking ownership of the entire journey from molecule to patient.

Read the full BioSpace article: Pharma Faces Investor Woes and Tariff Threats, Turns to AI and Collaboration for Survival