Pharma & Life Sciences
Pharma Finance for Burn, Milestones, and Gross-to-Net
Finance built for long cycles, milestone funding, and gross-to-net reality. Pharma and life-sciences companies burn cash for years before revenue, raise against clinical and regulatory milestones, and live with gross-to-net deductions that distort headline sales. We bring the cash discipline, runway modeling, and investor reporting that long-horizon science businesses need.
R&D Burn & Runway Milestone & Tranche Modeling Gross-to-Net Analysis Grant & Non-Dilutive Funding Investor & Board Reporting Audit & Diligence Readiness
The US pharmaceutical market by the numbers.
5.7 %
projected annual growth of the US pharmaceutical market through 2030
$416 billion
gross-to-net deductions on US brand-name medicines in 2025 — rebates and discounts that distort headline revenue
46–56 %
average discount off list price on US brand-name medicines in 2025 — manufacturers keep less than half after rebates
The Pharma Finance Gap
Financial complexity a spreadsheet cannot carry.
The financial complexity science companies cannot run on a spreadsheet. Pharma economics do not look like a normal operating business. The finance function has to model years of burn, fund against milestones, and translate scientific risk into numbers an investor or board can act on.
Years of burn before a dollar of revenue.
What you see: R&D, trials, and headcount consume cash long before a product reaches market. Runway is the number that decides whether the science survives.
A milestone-linked burn and runway model tells you exactly when the next raise must close — before the lab does.
Funding tied to clinical and regulatory milestones.
What you see: Tranches release on trial readouts, IND/NDA progress, or partnership events. Miss the model and the next tranche slips.
We model each tranche against its trigger so the cash plan and the science plan move together.
Gross-to-net deductions distort headline sales.
What you see: Rebates, chargebacks, GPO fees, and returns can turn a large gross number into a much smaller net. Reporting gross is misleading; estimating net is hard.
A gross-to-net bridge with documented accrual assumptions makes revenue defensible to auditors and investors.
Non-dilutive funding is on the table but unmanaged.
What you see: Grants, tax credits, and partnership upfronts can extend runway without dilution — but each carries reporting and compliance obligations.
We track grant budgets and milestones so non-dilutive capital extends runway instead of creating audit risk.
Investors and boards want science translated into numbers.
What you see: Scientific founders are asked for runway, burn multiples, scenario cases, and use-of-funds — on a board cadence they have never run.
A monthly board pack and scenario model gives the board confidence without pulling the founder out of the lab.
Frequently Asked Questions
Pharma finance questions founders ask.
Do you work with pre-revenue, clinical-stage companies?
Yes. Pre-revenue is where finance leadership matters most — runway, milestone-linked funding, and use-of-funds discipline determine whether the science gets to the next readout. We build the burn and runway model, the tranche plan, and the investor reporting cadence around your clinical timeline. See our fractional CFO services →
Can you handle gross-to-net once a product is commercial?
Yes. We build a documented gross-to-net bridge — rebates, chargebacks, GPO and distribution fees, returns reserves — with accrual assumptions that hold up in audit and diligence, so reported net revenue is defensible.
How do you model milestone-based fundraising?
We tie each funding tranche to its scientific or regulatory trigger and run base / delay / acceleration scenarios, so leadership knows the cash impact of a slipped readout before it happens, and the next raise is timed with margin to spare.
Do you support grant and non-dilutive funding reporting?
Yes. We track grant budgets, milestones, and eligible-spend reporting alongside the operating model so non-dilutive capital genuinely extends runway rather than creating downstream compliance risk. More on investor & board reporting →
Keep exploring
Related case studies, tools and guides.
Case studies
- Revenue was being counted twice across two systems — caught before the auditA US mid-market services business engaged EasePro for catch-up bookkeeping ahead of its first external audit. The standard checks all passed — bank reconciled, AR aged, vendor accounts current — but the revenue reconciliation diagnostic surfaced contract revenue being double-counted across two parallel accounting flows. We corrected the over-stated revenue, restructured the recognition policy, and rebuilt the reconciliation as a monthly close step.
- The model looked clean. Two costly mistakes reset pricing and slowed hiring.A US growth-stage SaaS business asked EasePro to review the financial model it used for board reporting and an upcoming fundraise. Two costly mistakes were hiding under a clean surface: cloud costs were forecast too low, and the true cost of winning a customer was understated. Once corrected, the model showed the real economics — the business reset pricing on two products, slowed sales hiring, and shifted its focus toward higher-margin customers.
- 4–5 months of working capital runway in one quarter for a seasonal businessA profitable US mid-market seasonal business was running out of cash every off-season. A rolling 13-week cash flow forecast pinpointed the gap, unlocked extended vendor credit, anchored a bank credit line, and structured weekly payment priorities — adding four to five months of working capital runway.
Free tools
- Burn Rate CalculatorFree burn rate calculator: get gross burn, net burn, and runway in months from cash, expenses, and revenue. Excel version adds a 12-month cash forecast.
- SMB 3-Statement ModelFree three-statement model in Excel for a new business or venture: linked income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow over five years, plus 20+ KPIs.
- Monthly Investor MIS Pack TemplateSample monthly investor and board MIS pack: P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow vs budget, a KPI dashboard, working capital metrics, and variance commentary.
Guides
- Direct vs Indirect Cash Flow Forecasting: What Actually Matters for an SMB?Two ways to present the same cash, one worked month, and a Friday that only one of them sees coming. Plus how to tell which one your software gives you.
- How to Build a 13-Week Cash Flow Model (Step-by-Step)How to build a 13-week cash flow forecast: the direct-method equation, driver-based receipts and payments, and a real bank-transaction roll-forward.
- Where Did My Cash Go? A Practical Guide to Cash Flow ManagementA practical guide to cash flow management: read your cash flow statement, shorten DSO, DPO and the cash conversion cycle, and get paid faster.
Bring CFO-level clarity to your Pharma & Life Sciences business.
Book a free 30-minute clarity call. We map your finance function and tell you exactly what is worth fixing first.