Annual budgeting season is a critical time for pharmaceutical, medical device, and broader life sciences organisations. Capital expenditure (CAPEX) planning during this period can be challenging, with companies striving to predict project costs accurately and allocate budgets efficiently.
To assist with planning, Linesight has curated an extensive life sciences project cost databases worldwide, spanning hundreds of projects across laboratories, manufacturing plants, cleanrooms, and facility upgrades. Drawing on over 6,000 data points from 250 projects across 23 participating companies, the programme delivers industry benchmarks that allow leaders to validate budgets, mitigate risk, and allocate capital more effectively.
- Comprehensive dataset, where each entry includes project type, location, size, duration, and detailed cost and schedule breakdowns.
- Continuously updated metrics, as the data is refreshed regularly to reflect technology shifts, shifting requirements, and inflationary pressures.
- Interactive PowerBI dashboard that participants engage via a secure dashboard that allows:
- Visual comparisons of proposed project metrics against relevant benchmarks (e.g., cost per square metre vs. median peer data).
- Facility, functional, and elemental-level benchmarking, highlighting where projects align with or deviate from norms.
- Contextual insights that explain deviations, supported by Linesight experts to clarify whether differences reflect scope, location, or execution strategy.
By leveraging this rich database of sector-specific projectmetrics, the program can provide actionable insights and comparative data that help organizations plan CAPEX with greater confidence and precision.
Budget overruns and cost uncertainties are common pain points in life sciences capital projects, whether it’s building a new pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, expanding R&D labs, or upgrading medical device production lines. Traditional budgeting relies on historical data and supplier quotes, but these often fail to account for the latest market trends or project complexities. This is where benchmarking adds value.
Data-driven decision making: Benchmarking uses up-to-date data from comparable projects to inform cost estimates. This means life sciences firms can base their budgets on real-world evidence. For example, if a biotech company plans a new laboratory construction, Linesight’s benchmarking data can provide cost-per-square-meter figures from recent lab projects of similar scope and location, serving as a reality check for their own estimates. It can provide facility-level and functional area benchmarks at a high level but also at the elemental level, as well as benchmark key capacity metrics such as cost per scientist.
Identifying cost drivers and savings: By comparing a project’s plan against industry benchmarks, organizations can quickly spot areas where their costs seem high or out-of-line. Linesight’s internal analyses show that benchmarking can uncover potential savings of 5-15% in project budgets by flagging overpriced line items or inefficiencies. For instance, a pharmaceutical company using the benchmarking programme might discover that its planned HVAC system costs are above the industry norm for facilities of its size, an insight that prompts renegotiation with suppliers or design adjustments.
Enhancing stakeholder confidence: Presenting a budget backed by hard data builds trust. When CAPEX proposals are supported by benchmark statistics and references to similar successful projects, they instil confidence in executives and finance committees. It shows that the project team has done its homework and that the numbers are justified by industry standards.
- Sharper CAPEX accuracy: Build robust, validated estimates grounded in real-world data.
- Data-driven decision-making: Base forecasts on 6,000+ cost and schedule benchmarks that reflect current industry norms.
- Executive confidence: Arm senior stakeholders with transparent, defensible evidence to support CAPEX allocations.
- Comparability and transparency: Understand how projects align with peers and industry norms.
- Risk mitigation: Identify outliers and cost/schedule drivers early to prevent overruns.
- Credibility: Build internal and external trust in budgets and schedules.
Conclusion
In an industry as dynamic and high-stakes as life sciences, data-driven CAPEX planning is not just a finance exercise, but a strategic advantage. Leveraging Linesight’s Life Sciences Benchmarking Programme, organisations can ground their budgets in reality, defend them with confidence, and uncover cost efficiencies that might otherwise be overlooked. The programme’s rich data and insights turn the daunting task of annual budgeting into a more streamlined, transparent, and strategic process.
How to get involved
Interested in participating in our benchmarking initiative? Contact Jonathan Phillips using the form at the top of this page to learn more about the programme, and how your organisation can get involved. We also invite you to watch the video below which outlines real-world uses of our programme.
Watch - Unlocking the power of benchmarking in Life Sciences CAPEX planning
