Rohan Kulkarni — Executive Research Leader, HFS Research[00:23]
Greetings and welcome to HFS Unfiltered. My name is Rohan Kulkarni and I lead the life sciences practice at HFS Research. I’m joining today with two guests from Mindsprint, a diversified service provider. Ranjeetah Singh is Vice President of Client Services for the Life Sciences Business, and Dr. Rishi Pathak is their Global Head of Life Sciences and Healthcare Practice. Welcome, folks. Let me set our conversation.
HFS Research published the HFS Life Sciences Service Provider 2025 study in late 2025. That essentially evaluated 41 service providers on their ability to address the quadruple aim of care, which is to reduce costs, enhance experiences, improve health outcomes, and address health equity. The study indicates that the life sciences industry is tearing down a $1.5 trillion revenue cliff through 2035 due to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which allows CMS to negotiate prices for Medicare and Medicaid, the end of the blockbuster regime, and the patent cliff. However, most CXOs and their suppliers are still clinging to outdated models in terms of delivery.
This reckoning will force all parties to reorient themselves towards the future that will embrace AI to improve health outcomes, explore new distribution models, and address health equity as a function of expanded market access. The study has three key takeaways. Number one, legacy service playbooks will not fix the revenue crisis. Enterprises must embrace Services-as-Software™ as the new AI-enabled delivery paradigm that focuses on outcomes rather than capabilities or services. Number two, the notion of AI first has become a comfort blanket, but the focus must shift towards outcomes first delivery. In fact, 75% of all suppliers in this study explicitly branded themselves as AI first. Not to be facetious, but that’s now sounding analogous to suggesting that they use electricity. And then lastly, life science enterprises must partner with suppliers for growth, not just for service capabilities. Ranjeetah, what is your perspective on the study and the reflections on Mindsprint’s Horizon 2 categorization?
Ranjeetah Singh — Vice President, Client Services, Life Sciences, Mindsprint[02:45]
Yeah, thanks, Rohan. So from a study perspective, what the readers will see is that all these service providers, the 40 plus that were evaluated, including ourselves, we were looking at, at the end of the day, from a patient experience, what are the four components that are important when we look at how a service provider like us works with the life sciences customers? The four components being health outcomes.
So how do we improve health outcomes and have that mindset in everything that we do? From a finance perspective, how do we reduce the total cost of care, which ultimately is the aim for everyone in the industry? How do we make health care more accessible? So equity is the third component. And last but not least, how do you improve the patient experience, which is essential and something that every one of our customers is talking about today. As far as our categorizations in the segment, some of the key insights that I saw are that the study highlights some of the pressures that our customers are facing. Things like revenue pressures due to the CMS negotiations that went into effect a couple of years back, increasing competition within the industry. How do providers, healthcare systems, pharmaceutical industry, med device companies, etc.—how do they adopt AI and position themselves and continue to innovate? And where there, I think, is a wonderful synergy between the value that we bring and the benefits that our customers can get, that’s where we see alignment based on our capabilities and solutions that we have built over time, especially when it comes to procurement, supply chain, and logistics, solutions that can meet regulatory requirements, and compliance, to name a few. Mindsprint has invested in certain things, which is one of the reasons why we have been able to get recognized by you all.
More specifically, we have invested in things like our Future Forward Lab, which is essentially an R&D and innovation hub for building new solutions with the mindset that we are an AI-first company that looks at using agentic automation for solutions, whether you’re looking at your SDLC lifecycle or you’re looking at business challenges and problems that our customers are looking to address. We have also invested in solutions that can help scale what our customers have already invested in when it comes to technology. And at the end of the day, how do we bring value to our customers using the innovation, our ability to execute when it comes to delivery? How do we provide the right talent, which is one of the hottest topics that everybody is talking about today? How do you attract and retain talent? So these are some of the things that our customers are seeing value in and why they choose to partner with us. And I think we’re hoping that we continue to expand on what we’ve already invested in so that we can leapfrog into the next horizon.
Rohan Kulkarni — Executive Research Leader, HFS Research[06:53]
Thanks, Ranjeetah. That’s helpful. Rishi, please share your thoughts on the future of life sciences globally. And how do you see Mindsprint playing a part in it going forward?
Dr. Rishi Pathak — Global Head of Life Sciences and Healthcare Practice, Mindsprint[07:05]
Sure. I think, firstly, thank you for having me today and to all our audiences hearing us. I think it’s a real pleasure to be part of the HFS Life Sciences Horizons Study videocast. As we see the industry moving towards a faster pace, I think it’s a pivotal moment for our industry, and I’m glad to be to contribute to the conversation to share Mindsprint’s perspective on the future of life sciences—where it is headed. Right. Well from our lens, what we see the future of life sciences globally and what’s Mindsprint’s role is—what I see is obviously the future of life sciences will be shaped by AI-powered precision medicine. We see that in the operational deglobalization, increased scrutiny on equity.
What I mean by increased scrutiny on equity is that the scrutiny on equity will be more than ever, as we see that regulators and payers will expect more fairness in terms of accessibility, diverse evidence, and outcome that reach every patient, not just the ones who have been traditionally been served, right?
And the shift to the real-world evidence. Well, in terms of the key themes that we see from our lens, one, precision medicine that is really expected to comprise almost like 50% of FDA approvals by 2035. The other area is the supply chain, which is going to become local. What I mean by saying local is that most of the pharma companies will continue building global platforms and standards, but they would deploy them using the local nuances, whether that’s regulatory compliance, or supply chain footprint, or repricing and access models. That’s how most of the life sciences companies will stay resilient while also meeting market-specific needs. And the other areas are the tariff regimes and the need for resiliency. Well, what we also see, the other key themes in the industry shaping in the next three to five years is, obviously, we see a lot of traction in the areas of patient-centricity, patient-centric engagement that is going to shift from episodic to continuous monitoring and personalized interventions. The other areas that I see is most important is the regulatory bodies, including the FDA and European Medicines Agency, EMA, which will increasingly accept the AI-generated evidence.
Well, in terms of Mindsprint’s role, I think it’s going to be very, very pivotal. We are working very closely with the big pharma companies, helping them and enabling them AI-first transformation using agentic automation across the discovery to commercialization value chain. I think my colleague, Ranjeetah, mentioned the Future Forward Labs, which is our internal AI-led solutions, you know, sort of a setup, wherein we run through a lot of IP solutions across the sectors, including life sciences. The other areas that we see is enhancing the regulatory operations through intelligent automation and the AI-supported submissions. Well, in terms of the other key roles that we see Mindsprint playing in the life sciences consulting and tech space is really strengthening the supply chain resiliency, right, using platforms like Procurement Sprinter and Smart Agents, which is part of our internal IP solutions. And many of our customers are already using it.
The other areas where we see a lot of critical roles that we at Mindsprint play are driving the patient engagement platforms like PharmaBuddy, right? So those are the areas that we see that Mindsprint has a pivotal role to play. But what I really see is that the next five years, right, are going to be really rewarding for all those companies that have a specific depth with their AI credibility, right, supply chain resiliency, and outcome-based engagement. And what I see is that Mindsprint is positioned as a strategic Horizon 2 partner, which is ready to evolve into Horizon 3 by expanding its value chain footprint and deepening clinical transformation capabilities and continue investing in ecosystem-led innovation.
Rohan Kulkarni — Executive Research Leader, HFS Research[11:24]
Excellent. It looks like these are exciting times ahead there for Mindsprint. So I look forward to seeing them. I wish you all the best. And thank you, Ranjeetah and Rishi, for spending some time with us this morning.
