Pharma industry trends: how outsourced field teams’ roles might shift in 2025

Introduction

With the first month of 2025 behind us, the evolving trends in the pharmaceutical and medtech industries are becoming clearer. A topic generating discussion is how outsourced field teams’ roles might adapt to address the changing pressures across the NHS and healthcare sectors.

While the demand for outsourced field teams has remained steady in recent years, 2025 poses several unique challenges and considerations that may reshape how these teams are structured and operate.

Here are nine key trends to watch in 2025, highlighting potential shifts in the role of outsourced field teams.

1. Primary care will face renewed attention

Since it came into power, the Labour government has placed renewed focus on primary care, making it one of the hottest discussion topics within the sector right now.

A key part of the government’s autumn budget announcement, primary care is an issue that Health Secretary Wes Streeting discusses frequently. In his first week in post, he pledged to increase the proportion of NHS resources it receives.

At the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) annual conference 2024, the Health Secretary told attendees that the Labour government is “serious about rebuilding general practice.”

Lord Darzi also addressed primary care in his recent independent review of the NHS in England, noting that: “Hospital resources have shot up, while primary care has been neglected.”

With all this in mind, it’s not surprising that primary care, and particularly neighbourhood health, is highlighted as a priority in the recently published NHS operational guidance for 2025/26. We expect to see much more on this in the 10-year plan when it’s published later this Spring.

Despite this welcome focus on primary care, patient access challenges remain. These uncertainties may impact the strategies and decision-making of field teams. With the move towards neighbourhood health and continually growing focus on patient populations experiencing health inequalities, field team stakeholders and ways of working are likely to evolve. Teams will need to be aware of the impact of the new plans on often exhausted healthcare professionals and find increasingly practical ways to support innovation in patient care. We expect to see a continued rise in NHS-Industry Partnerships in particular.

 

2. Leaders will need to become more agile

As leaders receive more real-time analytics – fast-tracked by AI – from their customers, they’ll need to become increasingly agile to respond to this new information.

Today, marketing teams can review their plans and pivot every three months – rather than every 12 – thanks to AI-enabled analytics. This real-time data enables marketing teams to see the real-time responses of healthcare professionals (HCPs) to outsourced field teams via integrated websites, emails and chat assistants.

With real-time sentiment analysis, an emerging technology trend, leaders will be able to gain a far more holistic understanding of their HCP customers’ views in 2025. Those who listen and respond to this data quickly will have a competitive advantage.

For field teams, this means addressing HCPs' evolving priorities and response to information provided by field teams, guided by real-time sentiment analysis. The move towards neighbourhood teams could also mean a broadening of the stakeholders field teams need to engage, or alternatively, that their HCP contacts have more views to consider as new decision-makers with varied priorities become part of the mix.

 The ability to pivot based on new data and new stakeholder priorities, potentially every few weeks, will be critical and could empower a more targeted and responsive approach toward HCP onboarding and engagement.

3. Value and outcomes will remain top priorities

Industry bodies like the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will continue to demand real-world evidence, with a strong focus on what it reveals about health inequalities, particularly among diverse populations.

Pharmaceutical industry partners are well placed to provide support in this arena, partly through collaborative working with the NHS and by using their technological, data analysis and project management capabilities to deliver value.

With pharma industry budgets hit by this year’s revised payment percentage under the 2024 voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access and growth (VPAG), there is less money available to invest in the UK market than in previous years. The industry is also under more pressure than ever to demonstrate value for the NHS in its medicine pricing and its additional services, like collaborative working programmes.

At the same time, the NHS itself is under huge budget pressure to deliver more with less, with it already having delivered a 5% increase in activity in 2023/24 from a 0.12% budget increase.

Leaders in the NHS and across the life sciences industry are both therefore under increasing pressure to demonstrate value. For outsourced field teams, this value-driven focus requires increasingly tailored conversations with healthcare providers, underlining their medicine’s ability to deliver tangible and measurable outcomes. These teams will increasingly need to understand and be able to convey the local context of the healthcare professionals they are engaging, the value their medicine can bring and provide additional value through personalised and relevant content.

4. Field teams will broaden their skill sets

Pharmaceutical companies will continue to reshape their teams this year, with a focus on developing a broad set of skills that meet today’s challenges. These skills include:

• Analytical capabilities
• A deep understanding of the NHS
• Ability to deliver highly skilled face-to-face engagement with personalised, concise digital follow-ups
• Empathy for healthcare practitioners (HCPs) 
• Ability to deliver timely and relevant content for HCPs

We also anticipate the growing diversity in field teams, emphasising broader professional expertise and cultural representation to resonate with an increasingly diverse and interconnected NHS workforce.

5. Payer marketing will require greater investment

Gone are the days when a single message would suffice for an entire audience. Payer marketing, which focuses on communicating the value of pharmaceutical products to payers, is becoming more nuanced.

With personalised content now an expectation, field teams will need tailored materials that address the specific challenges within different regions of the country. Messaging must offer highly relevant, value-led content that resonates with healthcare professionals locally and nationally. This alignment will empower field teams to create more informed conversations and establish stronger connections with HCPs across integrated care systems (ICSs) and integrated neighbourhood teams.

6. Tech innovation will drive personalisation

The sophistication of personalised content will continue accelerating in 2025, thanks to new technological capabilities and increasingly sophisticated marketing teams. For outsourced field teams, this means a need to provide consistent, tailored content that builds on every HCP interaction.

Each engagement will require follow-ups informed by previous conversations, implemented seamlessly with the help of digital tools. This approach will better position field teams to offer more meaningful and lasting value to their healthcare partners.

7. Talent acquisition and retention will need a human touch

AI is becoming an essential tool for sorting through CVs and applications, but it cannot replace human judgement in finding the top talent the industry needs. Talent acquisition—particularly for outsourced field teams, where expertise is paramount—needs the human touch to effectively assess soft skills and alignment with organisational goals.

Retention will also remain challenging as enterprises weigh traditional in-office working arrangements against employee preferences for remote or hybrid work. Outsourcing field teams can provide a flexible solution to personnel challenges, delivering the required skills without compromising organisational goals.

8. Sustainability will stay in focus

For life sciences and pharmaceutical enterprises, prioritising sustainability objectives remains non-negotiable. For field teams, this commitment often entails integrating sustainable methodologies into daily operations, whether it’s reducing their environmental footprint or advocating for eco-friendly initiatives during client engagements. The need to find new and innovative solutions will continue in 2025.

9. Flexibility will become more important as the introduction of the Employment Rights Bill approaches

The anticipated Employment Rights Bill, set for 2026, is already influencing how organisations approach flexibility. Organisations may require outsourced field teams to adapt to changing policies, mitigating risks while ensuring operational readiness.

Flexible and agile outsourced teams will continue to offer a valuable advantage, helping organisations meet the demands of new employment legislation without jeopardising daily productivity.

How CHASE can help you navigate the future of outsourced field teams

Uncertainty around outsourced field teams in 2025 highlights the importance of working with experienced partners. At CHASE, we’re proud to be the UK’s leading provider of outsourced solutions for the pharmaceutical, medtech, life sciences, and healthcare industries.

We’ve been a reliable partner for pharmaceutical and NHS professionals for decades, building   for industry projects while taking on core employment responsibilities.

This approach offers our clients maximum flexibility and reduced risk, allowing them to focus on delivering high-impact initiatives that achieve results.

If the evolving landscape of 2025 raises questions for your organisation, CHASE can provide clarity and expertise. Together, we can adapt to the changing demands on industry and ensure your strategies evolve to deliver measurable success. Contact us today to learn more about our proven solutions.