At a pair of panels on developing and selling drugs in Europe at the Biotech Showcase 2026 meeting in San Francisco, experts discussed the good, the bad and the ugly parts of the European drug development scene.
At the Biotech Showcase 2026 – part of the broader hoopla in San Francisco surrounding the J.P. Morgan 2026 Healthcare Conference – a panel of investors and another of pharma dealmakers discussed what to expect from drug company deals in 2026. The calendar flipping marks a good time to look ahead, but the delineation doesn’t really change anything for dealmakers who have experienced a slow shift in attitudes of investors over the last few months that will likely continue into the year ahead.
Can the market justify the hundreds of GLP-1 developers that are working to eventually reach the market? When the dust settles, Minji Kim, CEO of Cross Border Partners and Advisory Service, told attendees at the Biotech Showcase in San Francisco, only a few leading companies will end up dominating the field.
The accelerating pace of U.S. FDA approvals for cell and gene therapies is “great for the field and great news for the patients,” but questions remain over commercialization, with “costs remaining stubbornly high.” That was the glass half-full summary of Tim Hunt, president of the industry group, the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, reprising progress in 2024, and looking forward to the prospects for further growth and the potential impact of the incoming Trump administration in 2025.
Gene therapy has finally become the “new normal” with serial breakthroughs unlocking “tremendous value” for patients and society, while at the same time the U.S. health care system is shaping up to enable access to these costly treatments, according to Tim Hunt, CEO of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine.
Cell and gene therapy companies continue moving away from traditional treatment modalities into a future that’s often unclear. A panel of CEOs said at the Biotech Showcase in San Francisco that, instead of aiming for developing silver bullet therapies that knock out indications in a single blow, they tend to only be able to take incremental steps in development.
Drug sponsors should not focus on influencing legislators about how to price rare-disease and orphan therapies, Ovid Therapeutics Inc. CEO Jeremy Levin said during a panel talk at Biotech Showcase. “The game is not in Washington,” he said. “The game is on the ground in each state, where you need to convince the public, the individuals, the patients that, in fact, you are bringing value.”
“There isn’t a better place to be” now than in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) drug development, said Phyllis Ferrell, global head of external engagement in AD and neurodegeneration at Eli Lilly and Co., during Biotech Showcase’s panel talk titled, “Aduhelm: Stimulating the Next Generation of AD Treatment.”
SAN FRANCISCO – There's no time like now to think about the potential political changes, opportunities and challenges down the road for industry, Hogan Lovells partner Ivan Zapien told luncheon attendees during this year's Biotech Showcase.
