L.E.K. Consulting

The three pressures on first-time launchers As an emerging biotech approaches its first commercial launch, one decision shapes the company’s future trajectory: whether to commercialize independently or partner. For many first-time launchers, three structural pressures push the balance toward partnership. The first is the cost of competing. Among companies launching their first product between 2015 and 2025, launch-year selling, general and administrative (SG&A) investment was substantial.

The packaging and waste sectors in the U.S. are at an inflection point, as new extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations are set to shift costs, incentives and investment opportunities across the entire value chain. Drawing on L.E.K. Consulting’s deep experience advising across packaging, waste, consumer products and sustainability, this Executive Insights examines how EPR laws are redefining the economics of the value chain.

Chinese tourism remains one of Australia’s most valuable service export opportunities, delivering benefits that extend far beyond direct visitor spending. In this joint report, L.E.K. Consulting and the Australia China Business Council (ACBC) examine how Australia’s China visitor economy has evolved over the last decade, the changing behaviours and expectations of Chinese travellers and the broader economic value generated through tourism.

GLP-1 therapies have cracked the efficacy ceiling. The competition that matters now is being fought on tolerability, convenience, personalization, the long arc of chronic disease management and the ability to seamlessly get medicines to the patients who need them. The anti-obesity medication (AOM) market has rapidly evolved from an emerging category into one of the preeminent biopharma markets.

Bringing a drug to approval is only the beginning. Continued R&D investment is a critical lever for maximizing long-term value — and one of the most effective levers is ongoing product improvement. Beyond evidence generation, pharmaceutical companies can sustain growth in core markets through formulation and delivery enhancements, whether by refining an established product or introducing a next-generation agent within the same franchise.

Auto-scroll This video explores the growing international expansion of Chinese medtech companies and the forces driving their global ambitions. It examines how pricing pressure, intensified domestic competition, and evolving healthcare markets are pushing Chinese manufacturers overseas, while highlighting both the opportunities and challenges of competing in fragmented markets such as Southeast Asia.

US tariffs are increasingly reshaping how European brand owners think about packaging sourcing, supplier footprints and cost recovery. What began as a trade policy issue is becoming a broader operational challenge affecting packaging material costs, supplier availability, lead times and inventory strategy. L.E.K. Consulting’s latest European Brand Owner Packaging Survey shows that the impact is uneven.

Over the past decade, a set of structural pressures has converged to make banking significantly more operationally complex: rapidly evolving technology stacks, increasingly large vendor contracts, escalating regulatory expectations and ongoing consolidation. The cumulative effect is that banks and credit unions of all sizes are turning more often to external advisers for decisions that have grown too infrequent, too technical or too consequential to manage well in-house.

Diagnostic & Ancillary Provider & Service Health Plan & Private Health Insurance Homecare & Home Healthcare Mental and Behavioral Health Physician Practice Management Post-Acute Care, Long-Term Care and Residential Care Tech-Enabled Services and Healthcare IT Telehealth and Digital Transformation

Despite representing half the global population and carrying a disproportionate burden of chronic disease, women remain systematically underserved by modern pharmacology. A window for first-mover leadership is open — but not indefinitely. Women’s health is one of the largest and most persistently underinvested therapeutic areas in modern medicine.