Pharma is unsinkable… or is it?
Everyone needs healthcare; everyone needs drugs. Our industry is massive, established and too big to fail, backed up by myriad expertise, deep pockets and extensive experience.
The Titanic was a bit like that: cutting edge, confident, unsinkable. Then it sank. It wasn’t the iceberg alone that doomed it—it was the belief that size and confidence made it immune to failure.
Pharma is the Titanic. Iceberg are headed our way. We need to steer to clearer waters. The market is shifting; patient expectations are changing; and technology is rewriting the rules. We can’t afford to be complacent. If we stay on our current course, we will sink.
Pharmageddon is not just a lifeboat, it’s a new navigation system—one that will help us spot the icebergs, steer clear of disaster and rebuild a vessel fit for the future.
Day 1 - 07 Oct. TUE
Obstacles are all around, and could sink us at any moment. Spot the disruptors and identify the opportunities that will help us get away.
[learn]
Rearranging the deckchairs won’t stop pharma hitting big icebergs. While the industry tinkers with minor adjustments, agile startups and AI-first disruptors plot a radically different course. Pharma’s traditional operating model is not just outdated, it's dangerously complacent. This session will vividly reveal the hidden threats to your company’s current trajectory, showcasing how nimble outsiders are already reshaping the healthcare landscape and what you urgently need to learn from them.
Speakers: Paul Simms, Jill Donahue, Sjaak Vink, Hannah Tivey, Bjoern Lutze
[solve]
Collaborate to develop innovative approaches for tackling distrust in digital initiatives and takeover of AI.
Apply principles from behavioural science to create actionable plans that rebuild public trust and promote accurate health information. Design campaigns and interventions that can be implemented immediately, leveraging technology and community engagement to make a real impact.
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Facilitators: Clarinda Cerejo, Elly Aylwin-Foster, Helen Twiston Davies, Ines Teixeira Goncalves, Nina Fyhn, Steve Royle, Bettina Maurer, Simon Fry / Scot Collins, Drew Bustos, Nat Turner, James Harper, Ahmed Ezzat, Emma Vitalini, Mirkka Schaller, Rama Pryce, Rianne Venema
[Break]
[learn]
The next big breakthrough in healthcare won’t come from where you expect. Forget pipelines and five-year plans: today’s trailblazers are decoding stools, mapping sweat, and engineering real-time diagnostics into clothing, apps, and bathrooms. These are the startups building tomorrow’s healthcare today, not by asking permission but by building what they believe should exist. Hear from those who move fast, think sideways, and partner smart. This isn’t a demo-reel, it’s a mindset transplant. Ask yourself: are you ready to build with them, or be built around?
Speakers: Paul Simms, Haider Alleg, Pamela Walker Geddes, Richard Cassidy, TBC
[Innovation inspiration]
It’s time to get uncomfortable with the truth Pharma and walk in the shoes of an HCP. We’ll show what is thrown at them every day, so you can understand why your bland communications aren’t converting as they should be.
Speaker: Phil Blackmore
[Fireside chat]
Where else could you spend billions and have no real idea of the impact? Welcome to Pharma’s measurement problem. Cue the protests… ‘but, but, my…dashboard. My beautiful (and expensive) dashboard?’. Sorry, your dashboard is probably full of vanity metrics, and sadly nobody’s even looking at them. Right now, you’re working hard, but sailing blind. This session is a first step to getting the ship back on course: A new way of thinking about measurement. Join us in committing to climb the mountain of hard-to-reach behavioural impact, not just the shortest route to a pat on the back.
Speakers: Paul Simms, Gareth Morrell
[Break]
You’ve successfully spotted the icebergs, but how do we turn the ship in time?
[solve]
Innovation requires proactive work. You can’t wait for the iceberg to appear before turning the ship.
In this high-energy workshop, teams will compete in a live futures market, placing investments on disruptive trends and racing to craft creative strategies as the landscape shifts beneath them. You’ll face unexpected market swings that test your ability to pivot, outthink the competition, and turn uncertainty into opportunity. Daring ideas and genuine adaptability will be rewarded over textbook answers.
[Fireside chat]
[learn]
PPharma has long viewed AI as either a threat or an efficiency tool. This misses AI’s most transformative potential: amplifying human empathy, creativity, and deep patient relationships. Learn how AI agents can liberate healthcare professionals and pharma teams to do what humans do best—caring, creating, connecting—by handling complexity, personalisation, and routine decision-making tasks. Practical examples from consumer industries will reveal how pharma can harness AI for greater humanity, not just greater automation.
Speakers: Florent Edouard, Joris Van Vugt, Nick Lagan, Alyssa Fenoglio, Jason Gavin
[Break]
[learn]
Pharma collects mountains of data but remains starved of actionable insight. Clinical, genomic, behavioural, and real-world data lie siloed, misunderstood, and underutilised. This session illuminates precisely how leading companies (within and beyond pharma) are converting fragmented information into competitive advantage, patient outcomes, and business value. Understand how building deep data mastery now will determine whether your company leads. Then see how to convert insight into influence, crafting narratives that move stakeholders, energise internal teams, and align strategy with patient reality. This is the bridge between science and impact, data and action.
[learn]
Pharma collects mountains of data but remains starved of actionable insight. Clinical, genomic, behavioural, and real-world data lie siloed, misunderstood, and underutilised. This session illuminates precisely how leading companies (within and beyond pharma) are converting fragmented information into competitive advantage, patient outcomes, and business value. Understand how building deep data mastery now will determine whether your company leads. Then see how to convert insight into influence, crafting narratives that move stakeholders, energise internal teams, and align strategy with patient reality. This is the bridge between science and impact, data and action.
Speakers: Carlos Eid, Georgia Spain, Chiara Bolognini, Roberta Pandolfi, Laure Nas de Tourris
[learn]
Pharma’s trust crisis demands more than lip-service apologies and glossy PR—it demands brutal, radical honesty. Genuine humility means owning past mistakes loudly, transparently, and uncomfortably. But can pharma truly handle this depth of honesty without destroying its reputation? In this fearless panel, internal comms leaders and external transparency experts openly debate whether pharma has the courage to tell the truth, rebuild trust authentically, and commit to a genuinely accountable future.
Speakers: Sabrina Gomersall, Ana Cerdeira, Nejma Chami, Davina Lau, TBC
[Fireside chat]
Pharma prides itself on discipline and readiness. But the truth is that most launches aren’t failing because of poor planning; they’re failing because the playbook itself is outdated.
We’ve built systems for a world that no longer exists. By the time KPIs flash red, the damage is already done. Teams drown in a sea of congress sentiment, HCP chatter, field notes, payer pushback and patient conversations. Yet with no way to connect the dots, “insights” arrive too late to matter.
We celebrate success while leaving hidden billions on the table. We tolerate insights arriving months late because that’s how it’s always been done. And we congratulate ourselves on navigating compliance, when in reality it’s just the most vanilla path possible.
Speakers: Paul Simms, Lance Hill
[Fireside chat]
[mini-solve]
End the first day by forming voluntary peer accountability groups—your "crews." In small teams, openly commit to actions inspired by today’s sessions. Establish clear mutual accountability plans, exchange contacts, and arrange practical post-event check-ins. This closing ensures Pharmageddon's bold ideas translate into meaningful, lasting change when you return to your daily realities.
Day 2 - 08 Oct. WED
[learn]
They don’t click your banner ads. They don’t like emails. And they definitely reject your slide decks and brand promises. Gen Z are already today’s HCPs, patients, caregivers—and critics. Their communication style is emotional, layered, visual, and fast. In this crowd-favourite session, you’ll unpack how Gen Z consumes, creates, and shares information—and what pharma must unlearn to remain relevant. Expect fresh perspectives, real examples from their world, and brutal honesty about how your brand sounds to their ears. It’s not about TikTok, it’s about trust, attention, and the new grammar of influence.
Speakers: Noreen Sajwani, Sander Schapendonk, Azmain Chowdhury, Sarah Slager, Liselotte Wilbrink
[learn]
Regulation need not constrain innovation—it can actively foster it. Inspired by disruptors who've reshaped entire sectors through proactive regulatory partnerships, learn how pharma can similarly influence its own regulatory waters. Understand how genuine collaboration with policymakers can not only remove obstacles but actively accelerate transformative innovation, from AI implementation to personalised treatments.
Speakers: Paul Simms, Sarah Clarke, Yvette Venable, Michela Pantaleoni, Susan Cole
[Fireside chat]
[Break]
[Innovation inspiration]
The one number Pharma needs to know to accelerate connection, adoption and health outcomes.
Speakers: David Williams
[solve]
Think about cross-industry partnerships with the tech, wellness, and consumer sectors to pioneer solutions that enhance Quality of Life (QoL) across generations. Develop tangible products, services, and digital platforms that shift the focus from reactive treatment to proactive wellbeing, leveraging smart devices, AI-driven insights, and community-based support to empower healthier living for all ages.
[learn]
Pharma’s understanding of diversity has historically been superficial, focused on who we serve, but not on who shapes our systems. This session powerfully redefines what inclusive healthcare looks like, with inspiring real-world examples of designing trials, treatments, and strategies that genuinely reflect the broad spectrum of humanity. We will also cover more diversity in leadership. Learn why inclusive thinking isn’t just ethically necessary; it’s a commercial and innovative imperative.
Speakers: Sjaak Vink, Thomas Lanz, Carole Scrafton, TBC, TBC
[Break]
The ship is now shipshape. Time to chart a new course.
[solve]
Reimagining ‘Value’ in Pharma. Value-based care stalled because it never fundamentally changed pharma’s traditional business model. This provocative session pushes your teams to entirely reimagine pharma's strategic and financial structures. How is value is created, delivered and measured? Inspired by different voices across healthcare, teams will explore what value means to key stakeholders and how pharma can reimagine business models that truly centre around patient outcomes, affordability, and measurable impact.
[learn]
Pharma’s future is predictive engagement, powered by AI-driven anticipatory interactions that understand, pre-empt and proactively address individual customer needs before they’re consciously realised. Imagine a model where pharma seamlessly integrates into healthcare professionals' and patients' lives, providing intelligent, contextual support exactly when it matters. Explore pioneering predictive engagement examples from inside and outside healthcare that prove how intelligent anticipation is the next evolution in pharma communication.
Speakers: Paul Simms, Yazan Iwidat, Heléna Bargiel, Eva Martins, Michael Kurr
[learn]
Pharma’s structure is decades out of date—designed for blockbuster pills, rigid hierarchies, and cautious iteration. But what if we could rewrite the code? In this visionary session, you’ll explore the minimum viable structure of a next-generation pharma company: one designed for responsiveness, early patient input, seamless digital integration, and radical transparency.
Hear from organisational pioneers inside and outside pharma who are building new operating models—decentralised, interoperable, and future-proof. Because before we sail to new worlds, we need to rebuild the vessel.
Speakers: Paul Simms, Alexander Bastian, Erasmus Holm, Ebru Dogruol, TBC, TBC
[Closing session]
We conclude Pharmageddon by crystallising your voyage forward. Reconvene We conclude Pharmageddon by crystallising your voyage forward. Reconvene with your accountability "crews" to set concrete, measurable commitments—creating clear, actionable next steps that hold your bold ideas accountable. You'll leave not just inspired but empowered, equipped, and deeply connected to a network of fellow innovators. Your journey into clearer, more exciting waters begins now.
Speakers: Paul Simms, Jill Donahue
Gabriel de Paula Senior Event Manager +351 914 083 112
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Thanks for being keen to join us in Amsterdam.
Our intention is to have one non-affiliated ‘patient’ for each team taking part.
If you are interested in being one of these, please write to us. We also have a limited number of spaces for HCPs, media and others. Please write to Gabriel on [email protected] or [email protected] if eager to take part.
