I spent September 30 and October 1 at the Sheraton Valley Forge for Life Sciences Future 2026, and I came home more fired up about this industry than I have been in a couple of years. The funding is back, the deals are moving, and the mood in the room matched the numbers. For anyone who hires in life sciences, that combination means one thing: the race for people is about to get faster.
By Robert Graham, Managing Partner, RX2 Solutions
Start with the event itself. Life Sciences PA puts on a first-class show, and this year was no exception. The facilities were right, the schedule moved, and the two days felt full without feeling crammed. The speakers were strong and the topics were the ones people actually wanted to talk about. The engagement was real. People stayed for the panels, asked good questions, and kept the conversations going in the hallways.
The exhibitors and sponsors deserve a shout-out too. These were not booths you walked past. The vendors on the floor offered services that could move the needle for companies at every stage, from the two-person startup to the established manufacturer. That mix is part of what makes this conference work.
The funding story was more interesting than the headline
The one topic that came up in almost every conversation was a decrease in funding. When you look at the numbers, the real story is different, and better.
Total NIH grant dollars for the year held steady. Congress funded NIH at roughly $47.5 billion for fiscal 2026, up about 1 percent from the prior year, and through late September the agency’s grant obligations were running about 1 percent above its five-year average. What changed was the number of grants. NIH issued about 11 percent fewer awards than usual because it is now funding more multiyear projects up front. Same pile of money, bigger checks, fewer recipients.
That means the labs and companies that did land awards are better funded than they would have been a few years ago. It also means the ones who missed out felt it hard, especially early in the year, when new award counts ran at roughly half their normal pace before NIH caught up by the fiscal year close. Both things were true at once, and understanding that explains a lot of what we heard on the floor.
The pharma winter is over
The consensus in the room was clear: the industry is moving again. The data backs it up.
Venture investment into U.S. life sciences companies rose 33 percent in the first half of 2026 compared with the same months of 2025. Employment in biotechnology research and pharmaceutical manufacturing grew 1.7 percent year over year as of April, the fastest pace in nearly three years, and CBRE named Philadelphia one of four metro areas at record life sciences employment. Layoff announcements dropped to 17 in the second quarter, down from 64 in the same quarter a year earlier.
Dealmaking is on the same track. EY counted $240 billion in life sciences M&A spending in 2025, up 81 percent over 2024, with roughly $2.1 trillion of capacity still available. And closer to home, Eli Lilly’s $3.5 billion site in Lehigh County and Johnson & Johnson’s cell therapy facility in Montgomery County, at more than $1 billion, together carry at least 1,350 permanent jobs and over 6,000 construction jobs.
My own take heading into the rest of 2026 and into 2027 is that life sciences is gearing up for another big round of funding and growth. The companies that spent the last two years getting lean are about to start building again, and building means hiring. BioSpace’s 2026 outlook survey already shows it: 64 percent of companies were actively recruiting, up from 59 percent the prior year.
Where I wanted more
A lot of the conversation around China focused on how U.S. companies can use it to their advantage, and the logic is sound. China has built world-class infrastructure, especially for clinical trials, where sheer population size makes enrollment faster. The money is already flowing that direction: companies based in China took 34 percent of alliance investment from U.S. and European biopharma last year, up from 4 percent in 2020.
I would have liked to see more time spent on the other side of that coin: reshoring, rebuilding U.S. capacity, and making ourselves more competitive and less dependent on anyone else. The United States is still the number one pharmaceutical country in the world. We fund the research, and we pay the most for the drugs that come out of it. The next generation of therapeutics, medical devices, and technologies we cannot even picture yet should be built here.
That takes more than individual companies deciding to stay. It takes a collective push, at the company level and the government level, to subsidize, encourage, and build the infrastructure that makes the U.S. the obvious place to manufacture and scale. That is a conversation I hope gets a bigger slot next year.
What this means for employers
Greater Philadelphia holds 60 of roughly 500 cell and gene therapy companies worldwide and ranks second nationally as a CGT hub. When the funding round I expect arrives, it lands on a labor pool that is deep in some places and paper thin in others. Three things worth doing now:
Turn the conversations into a talent map. For every company you met, write down what they are funded to do, what they said they are building, which roles that requires, and when. That list is a hiring forecast for your own market, and it goes stale fast.
Benchmark pay against the companies you actually compete with. Among people who changed employers last year, 75 percent got raises of at least 6 percent, with 10 percent the most common jump. Among those who stayed, the most common raise was 3 percent. Your retention exposure is the offer the funded company two exits away can write.
Build relationships before the requisition exists. Sterile fill-finish leads, cell therapy process engineers, and people who have shepherded a biologics license application still take months to find. Meet three of those people a quarter with no job to sell.
The vibe
High energy, friendly, and talkative. Everyone wanted to connect, and the connections I made over those two days are already turning into follow-ups. Thank you to Life Sciences PA, the speakers, the sponsors, and everyone who stopped to talk.
I cannot wait to get back to the grind. If you were there and we did not get a chance to meet, reach out. I would love to compare notes.
RX2 Solutions is a workforce solutions firm specializing in HR outsourcing, executive search, and strategic staffing. We partner with organizations to build high-performing teams through customized talent strategies, leadership placement, and scalable workforce solutions.
📞 Phone: 610.340.3490
📧 Email: info@rx2solutions.com
🌐 Website: www.rx2solutions.com
RX2 Solutions
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