Oct 14, 2025
In this wide ranging conversation with Aaron Berger of UBC, we cover:
are FDA disruptions affecting cancellation rates and ability to forecast new business
status of biotech funding (note- not much has changed on this front since July)
how would IRA and Medicare price negotiations to impact CRO business opportunities, if at all
quick primer on pipeline and book to bill definitions, and why we saw growing pipelines but shrinking win rates throughout much of this year
why I've started to place far less emphasis on book to bill in my analysis of how well a CRO is performing, and what I now place far more emphasis on
what if anything I'm hearing about consolidation or divestiture
what happened to the grand ambitions of large CROs acquiring significantly more sites?
why you're not seeing CROs acquire AI clinical tech companies (hint: show me the revenue)
what we're seeing in the CRO pricing environment, how to adapt, and what tactics can help you live with larger discounts
what discounting behavior I was seeing earlier this year (and this was recorded before at least 1 big CRO finally admitted publicly to huge discounting last quarter)
I become the host and ask Aaron what UBC is doing in terms of business development and proposal strategy to continually differentiate itself
how narrow does UBC get on those differentiators?
and how the hell do you get that all done in a 1-2 weeks RFP deadline?