Pharmaceuticals construction in 2026
Building for change
Steve Townsend
Global Head of Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences
Pharmaceuticals and life sciences construction will keep growing in 2026. Unfortunately, costs will rise too. Labour availability will be a critical pinch point. This isn’t just driven by growth in this sector. In many locations, pharmaceuticals projects are competing with other fast-growing sectors for the same specialist skills and resources, and that competition is pushing up cost.
Investment patterns are shifting too. I expect continued focus on the US, with tariffs strongly encouraging more domestic manufacturing. At the same time, investment in Asia is likely to keep building. A lower cost base is supporting more R&D activity and new product discoveries, which in turn is driving more regional capital spend. Europe, on the other hand, is under pressure to stay competitive, and I expect we’ll see a greater emphasis on digitalisation and AI to increase efficiency in existing locations.
Pharmaceuticals construction projects need to adapt to risks and uncertainties in a way that few other sectors do. They sit inside a moving puzzle of approvals, regulations, truly global supply chains, and with the shadow of patent expiry adding significant time pressure. Every delay doesn’t just cost in terms of the build itself, but more significantly in terms of operational profitability. Decisions must be made quickly, confidently, with an eye on future adaptability as well as immediate return. In 2026, accelerating uncertainty makes that speed and confidence harder to protect.
Construction Certainty Index: Pharmaceuticals snapshot (2025)
The Construction Certainty Index scores delivery confidence from 0–100 across five areas. A higher score means stronger delivery confidence and lower exposure to risk.
Pharmaceuticals scores 58 overall. The scores are Time & budget 67, Risk 43, Sustainability 54, Technology adoption 42, and AI impact 63.
Although the overall score is in line with other sectors, low risk and technology adoption scores are a warning sign. In a highly regulated and complex market, confident risk management and successful digital integration can mean the difference between success and failure.
Top global risk factors that impacted project delivery in 2025 (% indicating ‘high impact’ on ability to meet project goals) ²⁵
Top global risk factors expected to worsen in 2026-2027 (% expecting situation to deteriorate) ²⁵
25 Findings taken from research undertaken among 1,060 senior decision-makers involved in construction and infrastructure planning. Construction Certainty Index | Currie & Brown.
What will shape pharmaceuticals construction in 2026?
1. Portfolio agility
The biggest challenge I see is agile capital portfolio management, so investment can rapidly respond to a volatile and uncertain environment.
In pharmaceuticals, you can’t treat construction as a standalone activity. Manufacturing networks and supply chains are truly global. A change or delay in one location will create a domino effect elsewhere. And when patent expiry changes the value of a product, the need to switch, scale, or repurpose capacity becomes urgent. That is why portfolio planning has to assume change: product changes, procurement changes, and timing shifts. Decision-making must be fast, but cannot be made in isolation. Each potential change must be properly tested, analysed and assessed across the entire portfolio – both for now and for future production.
2. Labour shortages
Scarcity of skilled resources will be a major risk in 2026. This will be made worse by two key issues: the impact of tariffs driving a rush to build manufacturing facilities in the US, plus growth in areas like data centres pulling from the same talent pool.
There is an opportunity here, but it needs a more deliberate approach. I’m seeing better outcomes when teams take the time to understand the pressure in each location, map what skills are needed at each stage of the project and build a realistic resource plan around that. This is part of agile portfolio planning: weighing up whether a location is genuinely feasible, and whether it can deliver the speed to market the pharmaceuticals sector needs to protect returns.
We also need to be more open-minded about how we tackle shortages. Transferable skills matter. People do not need “pharmaceuticals” on their CV to add value in complex projects. The key is to be realistic about where capacity will come from, and to build that into long-term portfolio planning rather than hoping the market will fix it.
3. Digitisation and data
Digitisation will continue to be a major theme. However, the challenge will be applying technology in right way, at the right time. In 2026, the advantage will go to teams that treat data as a decision-making tool. Pharmaceuticals has too many moving parts, approvals, quality, supply chains, product changeovers and time pressure, to rely on instinct.
For me, the goal must be preparation. Use clean, trusted data and comprehensive benchmarking to understand where challenges will strike, what is most likely to change, and what options you have if it does. That lets you make confident decisions at speed, and it helps you design and build facilities that can adapt as needs shift. AI can help, but only when it sits on solid data and is used with clear purpose.
Trend to watch
There are clear signs that China is moving to align with international regulations. If that continues, it will increase standardisation, efficiency and make China and the Asia region even more competitive. This will be an important situation to watch as it unfolds, because it will dictate where future investment goes and how quickly capacity can be brought online globally.
What I’d do now to be ready
1
Manage your portfolio, not a set of one-off projects. Link build decisions to present and future potential supply chain needs, product lifecycle reality and timings. So priorities and capacity can change quickly and calmly.
2
Think about labour differently, and think about it early. Plan around scarce skills, expect competition from other sectors, and widen the pool using transferable skills where it makes sense.
3
Use data, benchmarking and AI to tighten decisions. Make risk visible, improve forecasting, and use digital tools, such as AI, purposefully to ensure faster, better decision-making.
In 2026, speed to market will still be the prize, but preparation and agility will be the differentiators. The answer is preparation: joined-up planning, data-backed decision-making, and adaptability build in from the start.
Case study
Regaining control on a high-stakes pharmaceuticals build
A global pharmaceutical company needed to streamline reagent handling at a key US site. Their existing setup was fragmented and ageing, creating operational risk and threatening delivery timelines.
The challenge? Urgency and uncertainty. Delays and permitting issues were putting pressure on the schedule. The client needed fast, clear visibility on cost, time and risk—to make confident decisions in real time.
We stepped in with a hands-on team. We simplified reporting, so decisions were based on facts, not assumptions. We strengthened links with delivery partners and reworked the construction sequence to claw back time.
The impact was clear.
We delivered over $2.5m in savings and cut the delay by a third. And we didn’t just fix the problem, we left behind smarter tools, templates and reporting the team could keep using. Practical tech, used with purpose to make complex programmes easier to run.