Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) executives outlined the company’s strategic realignment, artificial intelligence initiatives and cost priorities during a discussion at Jefferies’ 2026 Global Healthcare Conference, with newly appointed Chief Executive Officer Jon Resnick saying the company is focused on creating clearer growth engines and improving execution.
Resnick, who said he started as CEO on Jan. 1, described the first several months as “pretty active” and said Certara has been speaking with customers, regulators and internal teams about growth opportunities. He said the company’s mission is to “disrupt clinical trials” or “transform clinical trials, clinical development for good.”
Certara Reorganizes Around ACE and MID3
ACE is focused on helping clients manage data “from protocol to submission,” improve efficiency and unlock data more quickly, Resnick said. He cited Certara assets including Phoenix, Pinnacle, CoAuthor and GlobalSubmit as part of that effort.
MID3, which Resnick said is the area Certara is “probably best known for,” is focused on using computational biology and biosimulation to change how clinical development is conducted. He said the company sees growth opportunities in discovery, where it has made significant investment.
Asked about Phoenix, Resnick said the product has “two distinct applications.” One component is a computational engine tied to PK/PD and population pharmacokinetic analysis, while another broader application suite is focused on data management and computational mechanics. He said most Phoenix customers will work through the data management side, while PopPK scientists will be linked more directly with one application.
Resnick said the realignment is intended to create “clarity, strategic growth, and accountability” and should simplify operations over time. He said the company is also adjusting its go-to-market teams to allow more specialty-led engagement and more direct involvement from subject matter experts and scientists.
Chief Financial Officer John Gallagher said the realignment gives Certara an opportunity to unify some previously disparate operations, which he linked to operating metrics the company is using to support growth in the second half of the year.
Sales Strategy Centers on Scientist-to-Scientist Engagement
Resnick said Certara sees a large opportunity in the clinical trial market, which he described as a $230 billion addressable market. He said regulators are increasingly open to newer approaches beyond traditional clinical development methods.
He said biosimulation is already common in areas such as drug-drug interaction and dosing optimization, and Certara sees opportunities to expand into areas including pediatrics, pregnancy and lactation, and organ impairment.
Resnick said Certara often loses business not to competitors or on price, but because clients choose traditional approaches. As a result, he said the company’s “highest single indicator of success” is getting its scientists directly in front of decision-makers at client companies.
He said Certara has brought PopPK, QSP and PBPK teams together, along with related technologies, to better respond to client challenges. The company has also changed incentives to reduce barriers between technology and services teams and encourage what Resnick called a “flywheel effect.”
AI Efforts Span Products and Internal Operations
Resnick said Certara believes frontier AI models will be strong in reasoning and logic, but that significant work remains in the vertical “last mile of execution.” He said Certara’s data, domain expertise, embedded workflows, publications and relationships with scientists and regulators provide a position to reinforce that vertical stack.
He said Certara is embedding AI into existing products, creating new modules and exploring native AI products. Resnick cited Certara IQ in QSP, CODEx as a data component, D360 re-platforming, cloud-based initiatives and AI-centric reporting capabilities in the cloud version of Phoenix.
Resnick also discussed the company’s acquisition of Vyasa, saying it has helped create an “AI-first mindset” inside Certara. He said Dr. Krishnan Raman was named chief AI officer on the company’s most recent earnings call and is leading work on a unifying data-layer asset that would allow Certara’s software and technology products to communicate more holistically.
Gallagher said Certara is also looking to use AI internally across R&D, finance, HR and IT to find productivity gains that could partially offset investment in R&D.
Demand, Bookings and Cost Priorities
Gallagher said the overall end markets are “in good shape,” pointing to a positive biotech funding environment aside from a recent “blip” and a big pharma spending environment that Certara views as healthy.
He acknowledged volatility in Certara’s results, with software down in the fourth quarter and up in the first quarter, while services moved in the opposite direction. Gallagher said trailing 12-month bookings provide a better view of stabilization and potential acceleration.
Gallagher said first-quarter software revenue grew 7%, above the company’s expectations, and that Certara now views its software plan for the year as “a bit better” than previously expected. For services, he said trailing 12-month bookings indicate low-single-digit growth, and that first-half choppiness is playing out in line with expectations.
Resnick said Certara is focused internally on annual recurring revenue for software and new software sales. On services, he said the focus is on opportunity generation and pipeline generation, including getting scientific teams back into the market to engage directly with customers.
Gallagher said Certara continues to pursue about $10 million of cost reductions while maintaining R&D investment. He said efficiencies may come from cost of sales, G&A, sales and marketing, and back-office unification. He said R&D at about 10% to 11% of sales is a reasonable placeholder for this year.
Portfolio Positioning and M&A
Resnick said Certara is no longer accurately characterized as primarily a small-molecule company. He estimated that roughly 60% of the business is small molecule and 40% is large molecule. He said some products, including Phoenix and Pinnacle, are largely agnostic to molecule type, while Simcyp is approximately 30% large molecule today.
He also said QSP is “almost exclusively” a biologics area, and products such as D360 and Chemaxon have added more large-molecule-focused innovation.
Asked about acquisitions, Resnick said M&A is “not the near-term priority.” He said Certara’s focus is on improving returns from organic investment and getting its existing teams operating effectively. He said the company would not rule out acquisitions that accelerate a near-adjacent market, but said the priority is organic execution.
About Certara (NASDAQ:CERT)
Certara is a biosimulation software and services company that partners with pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device developers to accelerate drug discovery, development and regulatory approval. The company’s platform integrates quantitative pharmacology, real-world evidence, artificial intelligence and machine learning to model and simulate drug behavior across a range of therapeutic areas and patient populations. By applying these mechanistic and data-driven approaches, Certara helps its clients predict clinical outcomes, optimize dosing strategies and streamline decision-making throughout the product lifecycle.
The company’s offerings are divided into software tools and consulting services.
