Recapping BIO International Convention 2026: Biopharma Eyes a Resilient Future

The BIO International Convention 2026, held June 22–25 at the San Diego Convention Center, drew thousands of biopharma professionals across four days of sessions, partnering meetings, and exhibit floor conversations that captured an industry in transition. BioPharm International^© covered the conference from multiple angles — conducting on-site interviews with scientists, executives, legal advisors, and manufacturing experts — and the themes that emerged paint a consistent picture: complexity is rising across pipelines, manufacturing, and deal structures alike, and the companies best positioned for the decade ahead are those building adaptability into every layer of their operations.

The following are highlights from BioPharm International's coverage of BIO 2026.

Complex molecules are now the pipeline majority — and CDMOs are adapting

Perhaps the clearest data point from BIO 2026 came from Kasper Øland, vice president of sales execution at Samsung Biologics, who confirmed that complex molecules — bispecific and multispecific antibodies, ADCs, and other next-generation formats — now represent more than 55% of the company's customer pipeline, surpassing conventional monoclonal antibodies as the dominant modality.

Øland described a structural evolution in the CDMO relationship itself. Rather than treating contract manufacturers as supply chain vendors, companies increasingly expect CDMOs to function as an extension of their own operational teams — demanding greater predictability, transparency, and timeline flexibility. He attributed this shift in part to tighter venture capital funding conditions, which have compressed IND timelines and reduced tolerance for development risk.

"It's about getting started as soon as possible and managing the risks," Øland said, describing speed-to-market as the result of applying tailored platforms to the right molecule at the right development stage.

Read the full interview with Kasper Øland.

Manufacturing flexibility, not just capacity, is the strategic priority

Sebastián Arana, global head of process solutions at MilliporeSigma, made a pointed distinction that resonated among attendees: the industry's next competitive advantage will be built on adaptability, not just scale. Arana cautioned that modernizing equipment alone is insufficient for manufacturers navigating an increasingly diverse drug pipeline — and stressed that workforce retraining is a strategic imperative, not an afterthought.

"I feel the winners over the next decade or so will be companies that build that adaptability in their manufacturing ecosystem, not just manufacturing capacity," Arana said. "What do I mean by flexible manufacturing? It's basically modular manufacturing, digital-enabled, and fundamentally platform-based."

Read the full interview with Sebastián Arana.

ADC safety is becoming a differentiator — and biomarkers will define the next wave

The antibody-drug conjugate session at BIO 2026 — The Next Generation of ADCs: Building Kinder, Gentler Cancer Therapeutics — drew significant attention. Sabeen Mekan, MD, chief medical officer at Zymeworks, told BioPharm International that as more ADCs compete in similar indications, tolerability is emerging as a meaningful differentiator, particularly as the class moves into earlier lines of therapy.

"We are getting to a point where safety is becoming much, much more important than it used to be," Mekan said. "Patients want that, they deserve that. Clinicians are choosing those ADCs as well."

Mekan also pointed to biomarker-driven patient selection as the next frontier, noting that emerging digital pathology and mRNA-based analyses may further refine how patients are matched to ADC therapies — enabling more personalized approaches in a class that has historically relied on broad antigen expression as the primary selection criterion.

Read the full interview with Sabeen Mekan.

Human-based discovery models show promise — but validation gaps remain

One of the more substantive scientific debates at BIO 2026 centered on whether organoids, organ-on-chip systems, and other human-based preclinical models are ready to meaningfully improve clinical trial success rates. Wyatt McDonnell, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Infinimmune, identified three converging technologies driving a fundamental shift in antibody development: single-cell genomics, organoid and organ-on-chip platforms, and AI models trained on large-scale human datasets.

"For complex biologics, where small changes in sequence can mean the difference between a drug and a development failure, having that human-relevant data at every stage isn't just a nice-to-have — it's also risk mitigation," McDonnell said. "I think we're heading toward a model where human data is the default at every stage."

Mohit Trikha, PhD, CEO of Kivu Bioscience, offered a more cautious view, calling for retrospective analyses comparing approved and failed oncology drugs to establish whether these models can reliably predict clinical outcomes before the field moves too far ahead of its evidence base.

Read the full interviews with Wyatt McDonnell and Mohit Trikha.

Deal strategy is being rewritten around flexibility and AI

Oren Livne, co-chair of the North America Healthcare and Life Sciences Group at Baker McKenzie, told BioPharm International that most-favored-nation pricing concerns are having a direct structural impact on licensing agreements — with large pharma increasingly seeking contract structures that remove mandatory diligence requirements to launch in Europe, given the risk that a European launch could negatively affect US pricing.

"Just because we're talking about these policy issues today doesn't mean 7 to 10 years from now, when these products actually launch, that you're going to see those same issues," Livne said. "Having that more robust flexibility structure in those deals allows contracts to be flexible for the future."

He also noted that AI is enabling due diligence teams to review significantly larger document volumes without extending timelines — and that China's role in supply chains and data sourcing is receiving deeper scrutiny within those processes.

Read the full interview with Oren Livne.

Is biotech finally entering a new investment era?

Sara-Jane Demy, CEO of Demy-Colton, offered a cautiously optimistic read on the investment climate, noting that M&A activity has been stronger than expected and that renewed NIH funding support is providing relief for smaller biotechs after a period of significant development delays.

"Our federal government's investment in biotechnology should be a great source of pride," Demy said. "It has helped us lead the world in biotech development and in bringing new medicines and treatments to patients worldwide."

She cautioned, however, that access to financing remains uneven — with companies backed by experienced leadership teams retaining a meaningful advantage over newer entrants still working to establish investor credibility.

Read the full interview with Sara-Jane Demy.

BIO International Convention 2027 will take place on June 7-10, 2027, in Philadelphia, PA. For all of BioPharm International's BIO 2026 coverage, visit biopharminternational.com.