Day 2Wednesday, 2 September 2026 - SGT / Singapore

Cross-border partnerships between Asia and the West continue to reshape the future of healthcare innovation, investment, and commercial growth. As biotech and medtech companies increasingly look beyond regional markets, strategic collaboration has become critical for scaling globally, accessing capital, and accelerating innovation. This keynote explores how APAC organisations are navigating international expansion, global partnerships, and evolving investment dynamics within an increasingly interconnected and increasingly complex global healthcare environment.

• What separates successful cross-border partnerships from unsuccessful ones?
• How are APAC healthcare companies balancing regional strength with global expansion?
• How are shifting geopolitical dynamics, diverging regulatory environments, regional investment priorities, and evolving market access strategies reshaping cross-border collaboration?
• Where are new global capital sources and partnership opportunities emerging across healthcare and life sciences?

As competition for pharma attention intensifies, biotech companies face growing pressure to clearly demonstrate differentiation, strategic fit, and long-term value. This session explores how pharma companies prioritise opportunities internally and what makes an asset truly partner-ready in today’s market.

• What makes an opportunity strategically relevant in today’s market?
• How pharma evaluates differentiation beyond strong science alone.
• In what way do internal portfolio priorities shape partnering decisions?
• How are pharma companies evaluating AI-enabled platforms, data-driven discovery models, and digital capabilities alongside traditional therapeutic assets?
• What lessons can biotech companies learn to position themselves more effectively for partnership discussions?

As APAC continues to generate high-quality clinical research and trial activity, the focus is shifting from data generation alone to ensuring data packages are globally credible, regulator-ready, and commercially meaningful for international partners. This session explores how biotech companies, CROs, and pharma partners are designing development strategies that improve the global usability of APAC clinical data, including how APAC-generated clinical data is increasingly supporting global Phase III programmes, international filings, and cross-border partnering strategies.

• What still determines whether APAC clinical data is viewed as globally credible, partner-ready, and regulatory actionable?
• Where do regional clinical programmes still face scepticism from global pharma, investors, or regulators — and how are companies overcoming it?
• How are biotech companies designing APAC development strategies to support global filings, multinational trials, and international partnering earlier in the process?
• How are successful companies transitioning regional Phase II programmes into broader global development, partnering, and commercialization strategies?

Asia is rapidly strengthening its position as a global engine for biotech innovation, clinical development, and strategic partnering. Yet despite growing influence across the region, collaboration between Asian biotech ecosystems remains fragmented, highly competitive, and shaped by very different business cultures, partnership expectations, and regional dynamics. This closing discussion explores the realities shaping APAC partnerships in 2026, from regional competition and cross-border collaboration to the long-term relationships, trust, and strategic alignment increasingly influencing dealmaking across Asia.

• What is still preventing stronger collaboration across Asia’s biotech ecosystems?
• How do regional business cultures, communication styles, and partnership expectations continue to shape dealmaking across APAC?
• What role will China, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Australia each play in the future of regional biotech collaboration?
• What partnership models, ecosystem strategies, and relationship approaches are most likely to strengthen long-term innovation and dealmaking across Asia?