This is a cool graph from a timely Reuters article drawing
This is a cool graph from a timely Reuters article drawing the wrong conclusion: "AI-led selloff in contract research firms may be misjudging disruption risk." [h/t to Andrii Buvailo, Ph.D. for surfacing it!] In this case, unlike February's indiscriminate Saaspocalypse following another Anthropic product drop, the selloff might be a little panicky but the fact that it has yet to recover may reveal a deep truth about the precarious positioning of pharma/biotech CROs (Contract Research Organizations), companies that perform all kinds of research services, including enrolling and running clinical trials, for Pharma and Biotech firms. CROs still have a card to play as important players in drug development workflows and benefit from context accumulated over years of services, but with increasing margin pressure and commoditization risk. DNAnexus's Thomas Laur seems to be in agreement! CROs need to embrace the new agentic era and become orchestrators, in the words of my Decoding Discontinuity colleague Raphaelle d'Ornano.
