For decades, families affected by rare diseases have heard the same heartbreaking message: ‘There is no approved treatment yet.’ In 2026, that story is finally changing. From the first-ever approval for Menkes disease to a landmark FDA policy shift for gene therapies, the rare disease landscape is transforming at a pace never seen before. Here’s what you need to know.

What the AI Research tells us vs what people are saying! If you read recent scientific reviews on artificial intelligence (AI) in the pharmaceutical industry, you get a clear message: AI is transforming drug discovery, clinical development, manufacturing, and safety.¹⁻⁵ If you talk to bench scientists, clinical teams, or data scientists over coffee, you often hear a more complicated story: pockets of impressive success, a lot of incremental improvements, and quite a few stall

On 23rd July, I’m officially launching Sharon Shields Consulting — a specialist consultancy focused on executive research, market mapping and talent intelligence for life sciences organisations across the UK, Europe and the US. I also partner with executive search consultancies who need deep, reliable research support for complex senior mandates.

Choosing where to set up in Europe is just the beginning. The real challenge — and the real competitive advantage — lies in finding, attracting, and retaining the right people in markets where the best talent has choices