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Program

Now in the third year, this exciting event is expected to draw 800-1,000 attendees – venture capitalists, investment bankers, biotech and pharmaceutical scientific and business leaders, and academics interested in future of oncology drug development and entrepreneurship. Once again, Spotlight Sessions will feature talks from AACR’s leading corporate partners who will discuss their early oncology pipelines, research investment strategies, and unique approaches to innovation within their organizations.

This is the must-attend event for the oncology drug development and investment communities. This year’s conference will feature additional time for additional opportunities for presentations from major pharmaceutical companies as well as showcase presentations from biotech.

All sessions and events will be held at the San Diego Convention Center unless noted below. This event requires a separate registration from the AACR Annual Meeting 2026 and will be available as an in-person event only. Virtual participation is NOT available for this event.

* schedule and speakers subject to change

Thursday, April 16

Friday, April 17

Thursday, April 16

Registration

7 a.m.-7 p.m. | Ballroom 6A Lobby

Networking Breakfast

7-8:30 a.m. | Ballroom 6B

Welcome

8:30-8:45 a.m. | Ballroom 6A

Spotlight Session 1: Bayer ag

8:45-9:25 a.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 8:45 a.m. | Dominik Ruettinger, Global Head Research & Early Development (RED) Oncology
  • 9:10 a.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Spotlight Session 2: lilly

9:25-10:05 a.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 9:25 a.m. | Lee James, Senior Vice President, Global Medical Affairs, Oncology
  • 9:50 a.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Spotlight Session 3: Pfizer

10:05-10:45 a.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 10:05 a.m. | Megan O’Meara, Head of Oncology Early Clinical Development
  • 10:30 a.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Break

10:45-11:15 a.m. | Ballroom 6BA

Spotlight Session 4: Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicines

11:15-11:55 a.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 11:15 a.m. | Jeffrey R. Infante, Global Head, Early Oncology R&D
  • 11:40 a.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Spotlight Session 5: Merck

11:55 a.m.-12:35 p.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 11:55 a.m. | Jane A. Healy, Vice President and Head of Oncology Early Development
  • 12:20 p.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Networking Lunch

12:35-1:45 p.m. | Ballroom 6B

Keynote Lecture

2-3 p.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 2 p.m. | Introduction
    William N. Hait, Johnson & Johnson (ret.)
  • 2:05 p.m. | Rethinking clinical trial design in the era of AI
    Yu Shyr, Director, Vanderbilt Center for Quantitative Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
  • 2:45 p.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Spotlight Session 6: Genentech and Roche

3-3:40 p.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 3 p.m. | Nikhil Wagle, Senior Vice President, Global Head of Translational Medicine
  • 3:25 p.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Spotlight Session 7: Beone medicines

3:40-4:20 p.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 3:40 p.m. | Mark Lanasa, Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Solid Tumors
  • 4:05 p.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Spotlight Session 8: GSK

4:20-5 p.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 4:20 p.m. | Zeshaan Rasheed, Senior Vice President, Head of Oncology Clinical Development
  • 4:45 p.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Break

Break supported by City of Hope

5-5:15 p.m. | Ballroom 6B

concurrent showcase sessions 1-2

5:15-6:30 p.m.

SHOWCASE SESSION 1

Ballroom 6A

  • 5:15 p.m. | Introduction
  • 5:20 p.m. | Zonsen PepLib Biotech
    Weiliang (Timo) Xu, Associate Director of Business Development
  • 5:30 p.m. | Agni Bio
    Matthew V. Lorenzi, Chief Scientific Officer, Co-Founder, and Board Member
  • 5:40 p.m. | Cellinfinity Bio
    Sidi Chen, Founder
  • 5:50 p.m. | Solu Therapeutics
    Philip Vickers, Chief Executive Officer
  • 6 p.m. | Shasqi
    Travis Biechele, VP and Head of Research
  • 6:10 p.m. | Byondis B.V.
    Christoph Korpus, Chief Business Officer
  • 6:20 p.m. | Iovance Biotherapeutics
    Brian Gastman, EVP Translational Medicine and Research

SHOWCASE SESSION 2

Meeting Room 11

  • 5:15 p.m. | Introduction
  • 5:20 p.m. | Mustbio
    Jun-Eui Park, Chief Business Officer
  • 5:30 p.m. | OxSonics
    Constantin Coussios, Chief Scientific Officer & Founder
  • 5:40 p.m. | Zymeworks
    Adam Schayowitz, Acting Chief Development Officer
  • 5:50 p.m. | Clasp Therapeutics
    Rob Ross, Chief Executive Officer
  • 6 p.m. | Halia Therapeutics
    David J. Bearss, President and Chief Executive Officer
  • 6:10 p.m. | Innate Pharma
    Yannis Morel, Chief Operating Officer

Reception

Reception supported by Zymeworks

6:30-9 p.m. | Hilton Indigo A/E

Friday, April 17

Registration

7a.m.-2 p.m. | Ballroom 6A Lobby

Networking Breakfast

7-8:30 a.m. | Ballroom 6B

Panel discussion Session: Molecular Glues and Proximity Induced Therapies

7:15-8:15 a.m. | Ballroom 6A

Moderator: Rami Rahal, MPM | BioImpact

  • Panelists
    Kat Kayser-Bricker, Halda Therapeutics
    Mahmoud Amine Sadok, Amgen
    Markus Warmuth, Monte Rosa Therapeutics

Break

8:15-8:30 a.m. | Ballroom 6B

Spotlight Session 9: Abbvie

8:30-9:10 a.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 8:30 a.m. | Eleni Lagkadinou, Vice President, Head of Oncology Early Development
  • 8:55 a.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Spotlight Session 10: bristol myers squibb

9:10-9:50 a.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 9:10 a.m. | Michael Pourdehnad, Senior Vice President, Head of Early Clinical Development, Hematology, Oncology and Cell Therapy
  • 9:50 a.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Spotlight Session 11: Gilead

9:50-10:30 a.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 9:50 a.m. | Jackson Egen, Senior Vice President, Oncology Research and Vinay Tripuraneni, Director, Corporate Alliances
  • 10:15 a.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Break

Break supported by City of Hope

10:30-10:45 a.m. | Ballroom 6B

Spotlight Session 12: amgen

10:45-11:25 a.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 10:45 a.m. | Jean-Charles Soria, Senior Vice President of Global Oncology Development and Erin Denny, Executive Director, External R&D, Inflammation, Oncology
  • 11:10 a.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Spotlight Session 13: astrazeneca

11:25 a.m.-12:05 p.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 11:25 a.m. | Susan M. Galbraith, Executive Vice President of Oncology R&D
  • 11:50 a.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Spotlight Session 14: Novartis biomedical research

12:05-12:45 p.m. | Ballroom 6A

  • 12:05 p.m. | Jennifer Lauchle, Global Head of Translational Clinical Oncology
  • 12:30 p.m. | Discussion / Q&A

Break

12:45-1 p.m. | Ballroom 6A

Closing Fireside chat

1-2 p.m. | Ballroom 6A

Moderator: Daina Graybosch, Senior Managing Director, Immuno-Oncology, Leerink Partners

  • 1 p.m. | Introduction
  • 1:05 p.m. | Richard Pazdur, Former FDA-OCE Director 

networking lunch

2-3 p.m. | Ballroom 6B