Two days. Back to school.
Pharma has spent decades learning the wrong lessons, but not learning from them. Get sign off, follow the plan, benchmark against a competitor who’s benchmarking against you. Mistake internal approval for real-world effect.
Patients are still waiting, and science isn’t enough.
This is the lesson plan pharma never had. Over two days, the room stops taking notes and starts rewriting the curriculum, deciding what to unlearn, and what the industry should have been studying all along.
Stop copying pharma’s homework, bring your own answers.
All times are Philadelphia local time (ET).
It’s time to forget the so-called ‘rules’ of pharma. Rewrite the lessons, scrawl over the notebooks, graffiti the corridors. Let’s unlearn!
The school is currently run by stiffs that hate the idea of change. What happens when the rebels run the school? Today is all about stress-testing the current system. But this isn’t about burning everything to the ground and indulging in an orgy of destruction. Everything you do today will build towards tomorrow, when you will be splitting into teams and working out how to structure our industry in a way that gets the best from our talent and the opportunities open before us. Attention class: the clues to tomorrow’s challenge can be found in today’s sessions.
What would you change to deliver the benefits we promised?
The medicine passed its trials; the launch hit its targets. So why are patients still missing out? Between gold-standard trial results and everyday care lies the Golden Graveyard: the benefit that never reaches the people who could receive it. This opening panel takes one commercially successful medicine and challenges the industry built around it. What would our experts change if they could rewrite the rules? Each brings a concrete alternative and defends what it would replace. The audience helps decide which ideas deserve a place in the new industry we’ll build on Day 2.
Pharma thinks it’s paid patients back…but the patients disagree…
There’s a bully in the schoolyard. He’s been taking everyone’s lunch money for years, and we all know his name: Big Pharma. This year, he gave some of it back when the teachers got involved and threatened him with a tariff. Big Pharma caved and signed most-favored-nation pricing deals covering most of the branded market…but nobody has stopped calling him a bully. Maybe the wrong kid got the cash. This panel will ask what’s really underneath MFN deals, and what pharma would have to do before a patient actually notices the difference.
How DTC models are changing pharma, and where they’re going next
The direct to patient movement could be the start of a revolution in pharma. Off the back of the debate about US pricing, we’ll be diving into one of the most innovative ideas to have emerged from pharma in years. Expert panelists will talk about what is changing as a result of programs like LilyDirect, dissecting the reasons for its success, and considering what will change in our industry as a result of these programs, encouraging you to think about what we can do to push them even further.
Who really decides whether a medicine gets used?
Beyond the business model of direct-to-patient programs lie the particular decisions of patients, clinicians, payers. Panelists follow that chain and examine where pharma misreads influence, shifting the burden onto patients, or mistakes awareness for adoption. The panel will bring in patients that have actively used these services to draw a better understanding of how people's behavior should influence the business models we invest in.
Real leadership means changing course when you’re wrong
The teacher says that the only stupid question is that one you don’t ask. In pharma, we rarely heed that advice, and double down on decisions even when the data says we should tweak our strategy. In this panel, experts will walk through times in their career when their assumptions were challenged, and changing direction paid dividends.
Why pharma is wrong about medicine…and always has been
Medical science is dominated by a flawed perspective on the human body. The male body has been the model for the therapies we made for humans. But humans aren’t all men. And female bodies behave in ways that are fundamentally different. Relearn what you knew about sex and reshape healthcare for the half of our species that medicine has always forgotten.
More products means more responsibility
AI can now make drugs, from discovery right through to production. However, there is no guarantee that this will translate neatly into patient impact. Science won’t save us on its own. More products that can save lives means more pressure to get them to patients fast. Panelists from R&D and commercial strategists will take to the stage to suggest a new kind of commercial future based on new products and a new customer base.
The outside-industry voices our leaders should listen to
Patients and clinicians are finding their own teachers outside pharma’s syllabus. Why might an independent AI assistant or community earn the attention and trust that a carefully approved pharma platform hasn’t? This panel examines what makes people choose these alternatives, how they judge credibility and where the risks sit. What can pharma learn from the experience the people intentionally choose, and how can we contribute when we no longer control the conversation?
Are you noncompliant, or just lazy?
What happens if we eliminate compliance departments? No, this isn’t a call to make us break the rules indisciminately, but building compliance into the remit of every job transforms roles in general. In this panel, medical, legal, regulatory and commercial leaders show how great ideas work with, not against, compliance programs. The discussion makes responsibility visible and examines how teams have found a defensible way forward, and asks how good ideas can retain their purpose as they pass through review.
The rebels have taken over. Now, they’re going to rebuild the curriculum
What would the rules say, if you could write them?
What does it really take to start a pharma business in 2027? Time to rewrite the rules of pharma from scratch. You will start with a proven medicine and a clear patient need. In teams, you will draw on the previous day’s sessions and build a new company to deliver on the potential of your candidate. Who will this company serve better? What will it do differently? How will it sustain itself? Set your vision up against other team’s and argue your case for the future of our industry.
Preparing for the world beyond Pharmageddon
A mixture of pharma experts, successful startup leaders and compliance experts will look at your new-look organisations and help refine the proposals generated in the previous session. Drawing on their experience they will help you develop your new organisations, helping refine your vision and make it a practical reality.
Committing to a bold new future
Pharmageddon doesn’t end on the second day. Once you’ve built your vision for the future, you’ll form a plan to make it happen when you return to work. Convene into innovation hubs to keep you accountable for the work you’ve started on the previous two days. Build connections and make commitments to bring your ideas to life outside of the event and into your organisation. It all comes down to this: what’s the point in going to school, if you can’t put your lessons to use in the real world?
Email Lucy Osborne at [email protected]