Resilient Performance Group Names the 'Landing Gap' in Cross-Border Drug Deals

Pharmaceutical companies are acquiring overseas drug candidates at unprecedented rates, often valuing them almost solely on scientific merit. Resilient Performance Group LLC, a rare disease commercial advisory firm founded by Brian Baldari, Pharm.D., MBA, has identified a critical oversight it calls the "Landing Gap"—the commercial exposure that arises when a drug developed under one regulatory and payer system must be launched under another. The volume of deals is staggering: licensing deals from the greater China region surged nearly tenfold between 2021 and 2025, hitting $137.7 billion, according to Pharmcube data cited by Reuters. PitchBook analysis shows nearly three-quarters of cross-border licensing agreements involve assets still in preclinical or Phase 1 testing, and China's edge in early-stage candidates is expected to persist. Buyers are acquiring earlier, in larger numbers, and from further away than ever before.

"An asset crosses a border in a single transaction. The commercial understanding required to launch it here does not cross with it," said Baldari. He noted that due diligence is thorough on the molecule but thin on downstream factors: whether the development program supports a US label, whether the value story survives US payers, or whether origin-market pricing holds up in US channels. "That is the Landing Gap, and right now it is being carried as an unexamined assumption rather than a line item." To address this, the firm has formalized its work under a named practice, Cross-Border Commercial Readiness. Since operating in July 2025, 58 percent of its engagements have required multi-market commercial perspective, with every engagement addressing the US and many also covering Europe, Japan, or China. The firm has completed 26 engagements for 14 clients across ten therapeutic areas, supporting assets from first-in-human through Phase 3. Repeat business accounts for 46 percent of engagements, and the work has shifted toward embedded commercial leadership for organizations without a standing commercial function.

Baldari brings a unique perspective, having spent 24 years leading pharmaceutical drug launches across medical affairs, market access, US marketing, and global strategy, rising to Vice President and Senior General Manager. He has participated in sixteen brand launches and led pipeline strategy across more than 100 compounds. He holds a Doctor of Pharmacy from Rutgers University and an MBA in healthcare from George Washington University. The Cross-Border Commercial Readiness Practice serves chief commercial officers, founders, chief medical officers, boards, and investors, covering commercial diligence, US launch strategy, market access and reimbursement frameworks, competitive positioning, and investor-facing commercial materials. For more information, visit resilexec.com.