Day 2
Location: Room 1
Our purpose is to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people's lives. We use innovative science and technology to address some of society's most challenging healthcare issues. We discover and collaborate with innovators to develop breakthrough treatments finding new ways to deliver them to as many people as possible.
Our vision: to become the most valued and trusted medicines company in the world
Our strategy: to deliver high-value medicines that alleviate society’s greatest disease burdens through technology leadership in R&D and novel access approaches.
- Markus Werner - Head Search & Evaluation Oncology, Novartis AG
Location: Room 1
Location: Room 1
At Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, we are unified around our purpose: We use the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world. For more than 130 years, we have brought hope to humanity through the development of important medicines and vaccines. We aspire to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company in the world – and today, we are at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions that advance the prevention and treatment of diseases in people and animals. We foster a diverse and inclusive global workforce and operate responsibly every day to enable a safe, sustainable and healthy future for all people and communities. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.
- John Copeland - Head of International Business Development & Transactions, MSD
Location: Room 1
As a vibrant science and technology company, we believe in science as a force for good. We uniquely combine three specialized, innovation-driven businesses: Life Science, Healthcare, and Electronics.
In Healthcare, we help to create, improve and prolong lives worldwide with pioneering therapies that address unmet medical needs.
With a holistic approach, we design and develop medicines and intelligent devices that provide ongoing care for patients beyond their treatment. This includes new medications to treat conditions such as cancer or multiple sclerosis (MS), but also innovative technologies that make life easier for patients. For example, our injection device and disease monitoring software allow patients with MS to self-inject their medicine and monitor its administration. With cancer, our precise approach uses biomarkers that can match potential treatment to individual patients.
Our goal is to support people at every stage of life – also when it comes to helping create new life. We have helped many women and couples achieve their dream of having a baby. As the global market leader in fertility treatments, we do what we do with passion – and we think further ahead. We have complemented our portfolio by fertility technologies, aiming to further increase the possibility of in vitro fertilization (IVF) success.
For additional information visit: https://www.merckgroup.com/en/expertise/healthcare.html
- Karina Karl - Director, Global Business Development, Merck KGaA
Location: Room 1
Boehringer Ingelheim is a world-leading, research-driven biopharmaceutical company. Making new and better medicines for patients is at the heart of what we do. As an independent company, we have the freedom to follow our long-term vision, which allows us to lead the science and create first-in-class discoveries that change lives. Our dedicated scientists are doing just that. They’re tackling some of the most difficult challenges in healthcare and together, with our external research partners, they are working to accelerate treatments that will transform patients’ lives – now and for generations to come.
Our vision is powered by innovation. Our industry-leading investment in R&D drives this, with a portfolio that is anchored by more than 50 new medical entities, enabling the next generation of breakthrough medicines. In 2024, we reached 66 million patients and we invested 27.6% of our Human Pharma net sales back into R&D, one of the largest commitments in our industry.
More information about Boehringer Ingelheim can be found on www.boehringer-ingelheim.com or in our annual report: http://annualreport.boehringer-ingelheim.com.
- Christian Kuttruff - Director in Medicinal Chemistry, Boehringer Ingelheim
Location: Room 1
Location: Room 1
Debiopharm is an independent biopharmaceutical company based in Switzerland with an ongoing commitment to develop tomorrow’s standard of care to cure cancer & infectious diseases and improve patient quality of life.
- Anja Bitterwolf - Director, Global Business Development and Licensing, Debiopharm
Location: Room 1
Servier is a global pharmaceutical group governed by a nonprofit foundation, committed to making a meaningful social impact for patients and contributing to a sustainable world. Our unique governance model ensures our independence, while supporting long-term innovation, with all profits reinvested in the Group’s development.
• Description
Servier drives transformative innovation to support patients with chronic conditions and improve their day-to-day lives through a holistic approach, which includes making patient adherence a priority across the globe.
Our ambition is to become a leading player in rare cancers, which is why the Group invests heavily in oncology, allocating close to 70% of its R&D budget to this field. By leveraging precision medicine, Servier develops therapies that are more targeted and more effective.
Building on our success in oncology, Servier has expanded into neurology, a key driver of future growth.
The Group is focused on a select number of neurodegenerative diseases, where accurate patient profiling enables targeted therapeutic responses through precision medicine. In all our activities, the Group integrates the patient’s voice at every stage of the medicine life cycle.
Headquartered in France, Servier operates in around 140 countries. In 2023-24, the Group, which employs over 22,000 people worldwide, achieved revenues of €5.9 billion.
Positioned as a Partner of choice:
- Private mid-size pharma company, ensuring continuity and long-term perspective in partnerships
- Science driven with strong R&D investments to build a high-quality and sustainable portfolio
- Fully integrated capabilities from research to commercialization
- Global geographical footprint, with a presence in both established and emerging markets
- Flexible and agile, we have over 60 strategic alliances with pharma companies, biotechs and academics worldwide to accelerate innovation.
- Strong track record of successful partnerships and deals
- Clear global Business Development strategy
- David Theron - Business Development Project Director Neurology Therapeutic Area, Servier
Location: Room 2
As the global biopharma landscape evolves, China has emerged as a key player, driving innovation, investment, and collaboration on an unprecedented scale. This session will explore the complex interplay of factors fuelling the sector’s growth, including regulatory reforms, R&D advancements, strategic partnerships, and market access challenges. The panel of industry experts will examine the opportunities and obstacles shaping China’s biopharma ecosystem, discuss how companies are adapting their strategies to navigate the market and provide actionable insights on how to succeed in China’s rapidly evolving healthcare market.
- Lucie Ellis-Taitt - Executive Director - In Vivo, Citeline
- Asako Yamaguchi - Associate Director, Novartis
Location: Exhibit Hall Stage
This session offers an informal yet incisive look into how Eli Lilly shapes their dealmaking playbook. Discover how they offer scientific entrepreneurs' access to pharma expertise, resources, and a streamlined path from discovery to clinical proof of concept. Explore the power of collaboration to solve challenges and deliver life-changing medicines faster to the patients in need. Join us for a candid conversation revealing what drives strategic choices to reshape the way breakthrough therapies are discovered and developed in today’s evolving biotech landscape.
- Tom Hopkins - VP and Head of Lilly ExploR&D, Eli Lilly & Company
Location: Room 2
From early development through to commercial manufacturing, service providers play an increasingly pivotal role in accelerating biopharma innovation. No longer behind-the-scenes, CDMOs, CROs, and enabling technology platforms are now strategic partners in development. This session brings together leaders from across the services spectrum to discuss how service providers provide critical expertise, infrastructure, and scalability, and contribute to value creation, derisking development timelines, and enable flexible go-to-market strategies. The panelists will explore how partnerships between biotech, pharma, and service providers have evolved, and what trends are shaping the future. As the ecosystem continues to shift toward greater specialization and collaboration, this panel will offer insights into how service providers can be powerful allies in building resilient, agile, and capital-efficient development strategies.
- Tom Murtagh - Global Practice Lead, Lumanity
- Maud Bouvier - Associate VP, Business Development, Evotec
- Ben Clauberg - VP Business Development Europe, AGC Biologics
- Matthieu Coutet - Partner, Sofinnova Partners
- Hartmut Juhl - CEO, Indivumed
- Steve Yang - Co-CEO, WuXi AppTec
Location: Room 2
This session is an interactive workshop which aims to build participants confidence in the moments that follow the pitch, when the questions begin. It’s often in the Q&A where credibility is either strengthened or undermined. We’ll explore how to prepare for the questions you’d rather not receive, and how to handle them in a way that builds trust and reinforces your key message. Together, we’ll look at what it means to bridge the gap— by understanding what type of question is being asked, addressing their need and then checking the gap has been closed effectively. This will be achieved by:
- Anticipating and preparing for difficult or uncomfortable questions.
- A step-by-step framework to navigate Q&A sessions with calmness, clarity and credibility.
- Reframing challenging moments as opportunities to strengthen rapport
- Interpreting and responding to the real question.
- Simon Fagg - Founder, With Leadership
Location: Massage lounge, Hall B
Take a moment for yourself during your busy conference day. Stretch to release tension, breathe to clear your mind, and move to boost energy between meetings and networking.
Location: Massage lounge, Hall B
Take a moment for yourself during your busy conference day. Stretch to release tension, breathe to clear your mind, and move to boost energy between meetings and networking.
Location: Room 1
This ever-popular session takes a deep dive into the current state of the life sciences industry with the expertise of today’s leading pharma dealmakers and venture investors. Join this engaging discussion to learn how to navigate the current climate of the biotech industry.
- Anton Gueth - Managing Director, EVOLUTION Life Science Partners
- Evonne Sepsis - Founder and Managing Director, ESC Advisors
- Friedemann Janus - SVP, Head of BD&L Regions, Bayer Co.Lab, and Divestitures, Bayer
- Philippe Lopes-Fernandes - CBO and Executive VP, IPSEN
- Geert-Jan Mulder - Managing Partner, Forbion
Location: Room 2
The panel will discuss current trends of successful biopharmaceutical deal-making, including pursuing deal frameworks that help foster partnerships and collaborations; navigating the implications of U.S. most favored nation drug pricing developments; balancing various risks and benefits in transactions; and identifying compliance challenges while offering solutions for smooth transactions.
- Hannah England - Partner, Ropes & Gray
- Margaux Hall - Partner, Ropes & Gray
Location: Exhibit Hall Stage
This series offers an informal yet incisive look into how leading pharma company, Johnson & Johnson, is shaping their dealmaking playbooks, revealing what drives strategic choices in today’s evolving biotech landscape.
- Julian Bertschinger - Head of EMEA, External Scientific Innovation, Johnson & Johnson
Location Room 1
The rare disease space continues to be a frontier of high unmet need—and high innovation. This session convenes leading voices to explore how scientific precision, strategic partnerships, capital and novel business models are converging to accelerate drug development in rare conditions. Through real-world insights and case studies, the panelists will discuss how companies are navigating the complexities of clinical development, commercialization in ultra-targeted markets and how to build sustainable pipelines in the face of regulatory, reimbursement, and patient access challenges. Join us for a dive into what makes a rare disease company fundable today and the models, milestones, and mindsets shaping the future of rare disease innovation.
- Laure Nas de Tourris - Partner Commercial Consulting Services, Clarivate
- Lori Badura - VP, Rare Disease and Neuroscience Global Partnering, IPSEN
- Hubert Birner - Managing Partner, TVM Capital
- Hubert Trubel - Managing Director, DEBRA Research
Location: Room 1
As global life expectancy climbs, adding nearly two years every decade, the biotech sector faces a fundamental question: how do we innovate for longer, healthier lives and make it economically and socially sustainable? This session explores the convergence of therapeutic innovation, diagnostics, disease monitoring, and socio-economic realities in the emerging longevity space. Rather than focusing solely on curative endpoints, the panelists will examine the shift toward managing aging as a continuum, from prevention to precision medicine, from healthy aging to affordability and access and unpack the paradigm shift - why longevity could be biotech’s next rallying cry. Discover how new technologies are changing the way we define and detect disease and importantly, understand who will pay for the future we’re building. Join the provocative discussion at the intersection of medical progress, demographic change, and financial sustainability where ‘what’s next’ meets ‘who pays’ and find out:
What’s the purpose that will reinvigorate the biotech sector?
How do we make the promise of healthy aging investable, inclusive, and scalable?
- Werner Lanthaler - CEO, Wlanholding
- Alex Zhavoronkov - CEO, Insilico Medicine
Location: Room 1
After years of underinvestment, women’s health is commanding attention and capital. This session will explore the growing momentum behind women’s health as a high-impact investment category and therapeutic frontier, including the recent Series A financing round raised by ReproNovo. Hear from leading industry experts as they dive into the evolving scientific, clinical, and business landscape driving breakthroughs in reproductive health, discuss the signals indicating that women’s health is moving from niche to necessary and understand how stakeholders can ensure the delivery of long-overdue health equity and commercial returns.
Join us for a forward-looking conversation at the intersection of science, funding, and unmet need—where the next generation of women’s health solutions is being shaped.
- Jo Shorthouse - Journalist and Editor, Freelance
- Colleen Acosta - CEO & Co-Founder, Freya Biosciences
- Jean Duvall - CEO, ReproNovo
- Hakan Goker - Managing Director, M Ventures
- Maike Scharp - Deputy Director, Diagnostics & Lead, Women’s Health R&D Ecosystem, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Location: Room 1
Neuroscience has long been considered “high risk,” but the field is experiencing renewed momentum, fueled by modality-enabled breakthroughs and innovative pipeline design strategies. This session explores how precision neuroscience, risk-sharing models, and strategic partnerships are transforming brain research and therapeutic development. The panelists will also highlight cutting-edge advancements in treatments for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease etc., and provide valuable insights into emerging trends, investment opportunities, and collaborative models that are reshaping the neuroscience landscape.
- Christian Jung - Partner, SV Health Investors
- Rene Furtig - Global Head of Neuroscience & Mental Health BD&L, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH
- Elizabeth Leshen - Head S&E, Gene Therapy and Rare Disease, Novartis
- Sandra von Meier - Head of Business Development, Desitin Arzneimittel GmbH
- Jan Thirkettle - CEO, Harness Therapeutics
- Prabhu Velusami - Senior Director, Johnson & Johnson Innovation
Location: Exhibit Hall Stage
Europe has the talent, science, and ambition to lead in biotech innovation—but its potential remains fragmented across geographies and governance levels. In this session, we bring together voices from both the policy and industry sides to explore how Europe can intentionally design a more connected, competitive, and founder-friendly biotech landscape. What will it take to move from scattered regional hubs to a united front of innovation? What role should policymakers, incubators, and industry leaders play? And how do we translate the vision of a European biotech powerhouse into concrete action? Join us for a conversation at the intersection of strategy and implementation, where bold ideas meet operational reality.
- Orsolya Symmons - Programme Manager, European Innovation Council
- Ruth Shah - Head of Bayer Co.Lab Berlin, Bayer
Location: Exhibit Hall Stage
Biopharmaceutical companies with products in late-stage clinical development often encounter significant challenges when entering the European market. While the European Union offers a unified market authorization procedure, market access and reimbursement remain under the jurisdiction of individual member states—a situation unlikely to change in the near future. The harmonization of health technology assessments (HTA), which began rolling out in early 2025, focuses solely on clinical evaluations, leaving pricing decisions to be made independently by each country. Additionally, navigating the complex system of price referencing between European nations presents another layer of difficulty.
Despite these obstacles, Europe has seen the successful launch of innovative therapies, particularly in rare diseases.
This session will leverage case studies to explore key considerations for companies not yet established in Europe. It will provide insights into how to achieve successful market entry, address the challenges of the price referencing system, and evaluate the value of a therapy in the European context—whether for licensing or direct commercialization. Attendees will gain practical strategies for overcoming hurdles and tapping into the opportunities within the European biopharma market.
- Tilo Mandry - Lead International Liaison Manager, Public Affairs, IGES Institut
- Janneke van der Kamp - CEO, Norgine
Location: Exhibit Hall Stage
The U.S. market for medicines has expanded in size and complexity in recent years and represents about 60% of the world market for branded drugs. European biotechs looking to reach patients in the U.S. and benefit from the commercial opportunities in that market have to contend with a range of regulatory, reimbursement and policy complexities. With a new Administration and new leadership in key government agencies in place, understanding the current dynamics is important for investors and biotechs alike. This panel discussion will focus on the implications for biotechs in terms of clinical development program design, accessing the U.S. market, strategic partnership opportunities, and balancing European focus with American opportunity.
Discussion areas will include:
What are the most significant areas of change underway in the U.S.?
What are the implications for the biotech sector?
How are clinical development programs adapting to the Inflation Reduction Act and other FDA-led initiatives?
How do European biotechs view U.S. market attractiveness and how has this changed?
Location: Exhibit Hall Stage
In the post-pandemic world, companies worldwide face fragile supply chains, and biotech is no exception. Resilient supply chains are essential to deliver life-saving biotech innovations to patients. They enable all regions to contribute to, and benefit from, global advances in biotechnology. Panelists from national trade associations and companies will explore both national and international viewpoints on supply chain challenges, opportunities, and shared priorities.
- Claire Skentelbery - Director, EuropaBio
- Kelly Seagraves - VP for National Security and International Affairs, Biotechnology Innovation Organization
- Wieteke Wouters - Program Director, Hollandbio
Location: Room 2
In biotech partnering, everyone talks about being the preferred partner - but how often do we act that way? In a world where "we'll circle back" can mean silence, and ghosting has become a silent industry norm, just getting a response from a pharma partner can feel like a win. This session brings together investors, pharma dealmakers, and biotech executives to explore the real value of candor in a sector where vague feedback and polite deflections waste time and stall innovation. From pitch meetings to scientific evaluations, we'll unpack how direct dialogue with real feedback can build better partnerships, faster decisions, and less churn for all parties. Clear communication is a win-win for investors, pharma and biotech companies, so why is it an exception and not the norm? Expect real talk, practical tactics and ideas, and no sugarcoating— just straight-up insights into creating a culture of clarity in biotech investment and dealmaking. Isn’t it overdue?
- Lubor Gaal - Managing Director, BDLG (Biopharma Drug Licensing Group)
- Anta Gkelou - Partner, Sofinnova Partners
- Peter Llewellyn-Davies - Founder, Accellerate Partners
Location: Room 2
The Startup Spotlight is a pitch competition featuring the most innovative startup biotech companies. This live competition will give a group of hand selected startups the opportunity to pitch in front of the BIO-Europe audience. A panel of esteemed judges will evaluate the pitches and select the winners.
- Tanja Bloser - Director, Future Health & Life Sciences Unit, Gateway Startup Factory NRW
- Michaela Fritz - Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation, Medical University of Vienna
- Marion Jung - COO, T-Curx
- Lei Zhang - Executive Director of Sino-Swiss Institute of Advanced Technology of Shanghai University & Shanghai Incubator, Shanghai University & Shanghai System Integration Lab Incubator
Location: Massage lounge, Hall B
Take a moment for yourself during your busy conference day. Stretch to release tension, breathe to clear your mind, and move to boost energy between meetings and networking.
Location: Massage lounge, Hall B
Take a moment for yourself during your busy conference day. Stretch to release tension, breathe to clear your mind, and move to boost energy between meetings and networking.