HUB International has expanded its North American Life Sciences Practice to offer "stage-appropriate" risk advice for organizations in the US and Canada.
The practice provides support across business insurance, risk services, employee benefits and retirement. It targets pharmaceuticals and biologics, medical devices and digital health, among others.
The build-out signals HUB’s intent to compete more directly with global brokers that already run dedicated life sciences practices, using a similar vertical model that links program placement with sector-specific advisory and human capital services.
“The life sciences risk landscape has changed in ways that a traditional insurance program simply can't address on its own,” said Liam Brown, HUB Life Sciences North American practice leader. “We built this practice to meet clients at every stage of their journey and provide the strategy, expertise and the relationships to help them move forward with confidence.”
The timing of the expansion reflects a tougher operating environment for life sciences clients.
On the capital side, funding has become more selective, with investors favouring companies that can demonstrate stronger clinical data and clearer regulatory paths. Capital has tended to concentrate in later-stage assets, leaving some early-stage biotech and medtech firms facing greater funding volatility and shorter runways. That in turn affects risk profiles around going-concern issues, pipeline concentration and dependence on key backers.
Regulatory expectations are also intensifying. As new therapies, devices and digital health tools reach the market, regulators are increasing scrutiny of clinical trial conduct, data usage, supply chains and cross-border arrangements. In the US, proposals and guidance around AI in diagnostics, combination products and sensitive data handling point to a more demanding oversight environment, while Canadian privacy and AI rules are adding further complexity for data-rich platforms.
Many of the most material exposures in this context - governance gaps, capital constraints and reputational harm - cannot be addressed through insurance alone. That is pushing boards and risk managers to look for brokers that can combine access to specialty capacity with advice on governance, controls and risk culture.
Capacity for life sciences risks remains available, but underwriting is increasingly granular.
Programs with robust quality systems and clear regulatory pathways can still obtain broad coverage and relatively stable pricing. However, higher-hazard areas are attracting closer scrutiny from underwriters.
Questions around documentation, testing, post-market surveillance and contractual allocation of risk are becoming more detailed, particularly for companies with US exposure where social inflation and large jury awards remain a concern.
Cyber exposures are also moving up the agenda. Clinical data, intellectual property, connected devices and remote-monitoring platforms present attractive targets for cybercriminals, and a single event can have implications across clinical operations, manufacturing and patient safety. For carriers, that raises aggregation and systemic risk questions and can drive tighter controls or more conditional terms for organizations with complex data footprints.
Against that backdrop, HUB’s decision to emphasize clinical trial liability, cyber, D&O and M&A due diligence within one practice reflects the way losses in life sciences often cut across traditional product lines, rather than being confined to a single policy.
The expansion of HUB's Life Sciences Practice is consistent with its overall strategy and is intended to position the firm as a long-term partner for clients as they move from pre-clinical stages through commercialization, scaling and transactions.
The move could also translate into more detailed, better-documented submissions from life sciences insureds, particularly in complex or high-hazard segments.
HUB’s expansion is another sign of the intermediary market’s shift toward sector-specific, advisory-led models - linking balance sheet protection with funding resilience, governance and workforce risk at a time when those issues are increasingly central to board-level discussions.
