New Year's Resolutions for Biotech in 2026

The calendar has turned, as calendars do, and with it arrives biotech's annual bout of collective introspection. It is customary, even among scientists who ought to know better than to believe in fresh starts, to make resolutions. Biotech has a few habits to break. 2025 was a wild ride. Overly optimistic trial timelines (that resolution to stop overpromising did not survive February), surprise data dramas, and the sort of cash crunches that send CFOs reaching for the antacids. But a fresh year brings fresh optimism. Here are six resolutions for the industry in 2026. Let us see how long they last.

Resolution #1: Cut the Jargon

No more indecipherable buzzword soup. Phrases like "synergistic paradigm-shifting platform leveraging machine learning" need to go. If a breakthrough platform is truly great, its champions should be able to describe it in one compelling sentence that even a grandmother could grasp. Clear communication about technology and goals is not merely a nice-to-have; it builds trust. Transparency can rally support when people actually understand the mission. The science is complicated enough. The prose need not be.

Resolution #2: Prioritise Patients Over Hype

In 2026, let us promise to chase real patient needs, not the hot trend of the month. Too often the industry gets distracted by whatever is sexy on an investor slide, whether the disease area everyone else is chasing or the technology buzzword du jour. Projects and indications ought to be chosen because they matter for patients, especially those with rare diseases or underserved conditions, not because they make for flashy press releases.

Sure, the CFO may whisper to go where the money is. Perhaps the money will follow the meaningful eventually. Developing a therapy for a smaller patient population that desperately needs it may not grab headlines like the latest AI-driven oncology platform, but it is the right thing to do.

Resolution #3: Embrace Data (Even When It's Ugly)

Time to get honest. In 2026 we will face our data, warts and all. No more cherry-picking endpoints to claim a victory that was not there. If the primary endpoint fails, we shall not spin a minor subgroup or shaky post-hoc analysis as "compelling evidence" of success. We have all seen the press release where a trial's primary outcome comes in with a p-value of 0.07 and the company still proclaims a "clearly encouraging trend." p = 0.07 is not a win. It is just not.

Instead of contorting negative results into quasi-positive narratives, we might try admitting when something did not work and learning from it. Regulators and investors can forgive a failure. What they will not forgive is being misled.

Resolution #4: Think Beyond Equity

After the free-spending heydays, many biotechs are living in lean times. Fiscal responsibility is survival. But there is more to financial prudence than belt-tightening. It also means getting creative about where the capital comes from.

The IPO window remains largely closed. Only five biotech companies raising more than $50 million went public in 2025, compared to 150 during the pandemic boom. Venture capital has concentrated into mega-rounds, leaving smaller companies starving. Meanwhile, 39% of public biotechs operate with less than one year of cash runway.

Royalty financing has stepped into this gap. In H1 2025 alone, royalty transactions totalled roughly $2.7 billion, annualising at over $5.4 billion for the year. Nearly 90% of biopharma executives now say they plan to consider royalty financing in the next three years.

The appeal is straightforward. When stock prices are depressed, raising equity means locking in a painful valuation. When traditional debt markets demand onerous covenants and broad asset pledges, royalties offer something different: capital now in exchange for a slice of revenue later, without diluting existing shareholders or ceding board seats. Companies receive upfront funding in exchange for a percentage of future product revenues. No dilution, no debt covenants. It lets companies fund their most promising assets themselves rather than licensing them out early to pharma giants.

This is a $20 billion per year market, but it remains constrained by opacity. Three funds control 80% of deal flow because their moat is information asymmetry. No dedicated data infrastructure exists. Transparency could unlock $100 billion.

The resolution for 2026 should be to at least understand what these structures offer before dismissing them.

Resolution #5: Collaborate, Don't Just Consolidate

"Partner" is not a dirty word. In 2026, let us seek collaboration in all its forms. Industry with academia, big pharma with scrappy biotech, East with West (even if geopolitical winds blow chilly). The challenges we are tackling are bigger than any one company's ego.

Consolidation will happen. There is no doubt a lot of M&A is in the cards. Goldman Sachs predicts a record-breaking biotech deal haul in 2026. When cash is tight and pipelines hungry, being acquired or merging can be a valid strategy. But let us not mistake mergers for the only kind of teamwork. We can share data more openly, form creative joint ventures, and pool expertise.

Even cross-border collaboration should be on the table. In 2025, about 35% of biotech deals involved a China-based company, proving that science benefits when we bridge continents.

Resolution #6: Remember the Big Picture

After a couple of rough years, cynicism comes easily. Biotech has weathered bear markets, clinical failures, regulatory curveballs. But why are we here in the first place? To improve patients' lives with science. In 2026, let us resolve to remember that big picture every time morale dips.

The funding cycles will turn. After bottoming out early in 2025, biotech stocks staged a rebound by year-end. The political winds will shift. Leadership changes and drug pricing dramas come and go. What endures is the knowledge that somewhere out there, a patient is waiting for what we are working on.

My Resolution: Make 2026 the Year of Royalty Financing

I am determined to make 2026 the year of pharma royalties, and we are starting early.

Royalty financing has become a lifeline for biotech companies. Non-dilutive, flexible, and increasingly mainstream. It is no longer a niche instrument but a serious source of capital for companies with commercial-stage assets or strong pipelines. For investors, it offers returns tied to product sales rather than stock performance.

At Capital for Cures, we are building the infrastructure this market needs. We have reverse-engineered 1,000+ deals and built the first public benchmark for pharma royalties, combining deal data, AI-powered valuations, and transaction support. Whether you are looking to monetise an asset or deploy capital into royalties, we want to make that process easier.

Most royalty financing conversations happen in Boston, London, or Basel. We want to change that. Central and Eastern Europe has a growing life sciences sector, and it is time to bring royalty financing expertise to the region.

On January 14th, Capital for Cures is hosting a royalty financing event in Warsaw together with Rymarz Zdort Maruta. We will cover what royalty financing actually is, why it matters now, and what makes a deal work. You can expect to mingle with investors, biotech executives, and others active in life sciences finance.

If you are in the region, join us. Register here: lu.ma/0tmjth4p

A Toast to 2026

Will we keep all these resolutions perfectly? Probably not. We are only human, and perhaps a bit sleep-deprived. But striving toward these goals can only help move the industry in the right direction. Biotech is nothing if not resilient. We iterate experiments, pivot strategies, bounce back from setbacks habitually. Think of these resolutions as our collective New Year's CRISPR: a chance to edit out some bad habits and engineer better ones.

So here is to a fresh start. To bold experiments, honest data, clear communication, creative financing, fruitful collaborations, and unshakeable purpose. 2026, we are ready for you.

Happy New Year, and cheers to breakthroughs ahead.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer or financial adviser. The content on p05.org is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal, or financial advice.