J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference 2026: From Speculative Hype to Operational High Conviction
In this exclusive preview to J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference 2026, Elliott Berger highlights his thoughts of promising therapeutic modalities and explains why regional manufacturing is no longer optional for biopharma companies seeking long-term resilience.
The annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is a large symposium that acts as a barometer for investment into the bio/pharma industry. To find out more about some of the prospective trends and topics that will be prominent at this year’s event, taking place in San Francisco, Calif., on Jan 12–15, 2026, The Pharma Navigator, sat down with Elliott Berger, Board Director, Orientation Marketing and an executive consultant to many pharma services companies and their investors.
Therapeutic Promise and Potential Success
TPN: Is there a specific emerging therapeutic modality that you believe will experience the most significant jump in development interest at this year’s event?
Berger: Peptides will continue to be very important in 2026 as well but will start to expand beyond GLP-1s and into a broader spectrum of therapeutic indications. I think ADCs [antibody-drug conjugates] will continue to be hot for quite some time, especially if you consider them not just as a delivery vehicle for potent payloads to kill cancer cells, but also as a targeting delivery system to deliver the active ingredient to the right target and all the potential that has for new treatments and cures.
Finally, I think there will be a lot of conversations on what’s really going to unfold in the previously hot cell and gene area that has enjoyed a lot of investment but has been much slower on results than anticipated. I believe there is still real promise there and it will be really successful over time as these modalities are proven to deliver real treatments and cures for patients with unmet needs — and that always wins in the end. The discussion should be around where and how and what’s the financial model that supports this!
Manufacturing Resilience and Regionalization
TPN: How is the conversation around onshoring and domestic manufacturing resilience evolving this year compared to previous years, particularly within the context of risk management for long-term supply?
Berger: The conversation is getting real! With multi-billion-dollar announcements coming fast and furious over the last several months — reshoring is here now.
What I really believe is that the correct and broad way to look at it is that regional manufacturing is now a must have and not optional. Biopharma companies will need a flexible supply strategy to deliver APIs in each region to bypass geopolitical, tariff, and regulatory issues staying close to the patient. U.S. for U.S., Europe for Europe, and Asia (China or Korea or Japan) for Asia production is likely to be the case for most medicines in the future.
TPN: Are current conversations shifting from building sheer manufacturing capacity to building operational productivity and responsiveness? What does that look like in terms of new investment?
Berger: Given the regional strategy that is a must these days, volumes will be divided between multiple facilities, and operational efficiency at those scales will be vital, as well as responsiveness to rapidly changing geopolitical and regulatory developments. Previously many companies launched from one factory for final drug product and focused on large efficient manufacturing for world-wide supply before qualifying or building additional supply points later. This will be difficult to do going forward and regional manufacturing to supply patents in that region overcoming of barriers and cost concerns.
Switching the AI Conversation
TPN: Everyone is talking about artificial intelligence (AI), but who is showing a real return on investment (ROI)? What practical implementations of automation or digitalization do you expect to be high-conviction topics this year?
Berger: The conversation will need to switch from AI implementation in general to actual AI-enabled improvements in vital functions. It’s not about ‘generative AI in the news’ but more about how we can significantly improve speed and accuracy of action in real and important areas, for example deviation responses and CAPAs [corrective and preventive actions] with AI. Other focus areas could be on how can we create a specialized system that would sort through our particular highly complex set of data on chemistry or clinical or operational schedule or customer demand scenarios to really improve our decision making or narrow the parameters of the possible operational needs.
About the Interviewee
Elliott Berger is Board Director, Orientation Marketing; former Chief Marketing Officer at Catalent and Executive at Johnson & Johnson and Ernst & Young. He is currently an executive consultant or Fractional CMO for a number of pharma service companies and their investors.
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