Agenda for Day 1 – Tuesday December 8th, 2026Tuesday, 8 December 2026 - ET (Eastern Time, GMT-05:00)

For two decades, pharma channel strategy rested on stable assumptions: WAC trends one direction, the pharmacy benefit dominates, brands compete on patent protection, generics rely on brands to simply roll-over when they lose it, insurance absorbs most patient cost and only people that don’t have insurance pay cash for their pharmaceuticals. In the next eighteen months, every one of those assumptions breaks — not eventually, but at once. The patent cliff has become a calendar event, the percent of brand prescriptions in retail pharmacy crashes below 5%, MFP has become a pricing reality, a medical benefit bubble gets popped, WAC post-LOE decreases and cash/self-pay is emerging as a parallel channel no one fully controls. None of these forces is new — what's new is that they're all landing together, forcing a rebuild of channel strategy from first principles. The leaders who come out ahead won't be the ones who predicted this convergence; they'll be the ones who navigate it.

The pharmaceutical industry is in the midst of strategic reshaping. Major players are acquiring development capabilities, building in-house innovation arms and pursuing vertical integration at an unprecedented pace. This panel brings together the dealmakers, advisors and analysts tracking billions in transaction activity to decode what's driving consolidation, where the next wave of deals is headed and what it means for companies across the value chain.

• Evaluate how M&A activity affects distribution partnerships and channel strategies and identify where your organization fits in the evolving landscape of vertical integration and consolidation

• Access real-time analysis of valuation trends and what drives premium pricing in pharma deals, hear predictions for the next 12-24 months of deal activity from investment banking and industry analyst perspectives and walk away with actionable insights to inform your strategic planning and business development priorities

The pharmaceutical industry operates in an increasingly complex regulatory and legal environment where policy shifts and court decisions can rapidly reshape market dynamics, competitive positioning, and commercial viability. From federal legislation and agency rulemaking to state-level initiatives and landmark court cases, stakeholders must monitor, interpret, and respond to a constantly evolving landscape of legal and policy developments. This session provides a comprehensive framework for identifying critical policy and legal watch outs, understanding their potential market impacts, and building organizational capabilities to translate regulatory intelligence into strategic action. Attendees will gain practical tools for staying ahead of policy changes that could affect pricing, access, reimbursement, distribution, and competitive dynamics.

The pharmacy landscape is undergoing fundamental transformation across all channels—retail, specialty, health system, and independent. This session brings together operational leaders to explore how market shifts will reshape what pharmacies dispense and how they acquire products over the next few years. Through candid discussions on reimbursement pressures, cost of goods volatility and evolving cost-to-serve models, attendees gain ground truth insights into the operational realities facing all pharmacy segments today and strategic approaches to building sustainable, future-ready operations.

• Get candid, unfiltered feedback from the trade partners who move your products every day about supply chain friction points, communication breakdowns, service expectations and operational challenges that directly impact your market performance

• Explore innovative ways for manufacturers to create different trade & channel strategies to respond to today's healthcare needs, including new and different approaches to how commercialization stages are being evaluated and launched

• Identify practical strategies to strengthen trade relationships, improve distribution efficiency, resolve common pain points and create competitive advantages through better manufacturer-customer collaboration

• Walk away with actionable intelligence and recommendations to implement immediately to enhance your channel support, build more resilient partnerships and drive mutual growth across your distribution network

The direct-to-patient model is no longer experimental but knowing when to deploy DTP and how to do it without disrupting your existing channel partnerships requires strategic precision. Join industry leaders who are building and responding to platforms like for a candid fireside chat about the realities of DTP implementation. This conversation cuts through the hype to address the critical questions: Which products and patient populations are right for direct models? How do you manage the operational complexities and policy implications, including emerging frameworks like TrumpRx? And most importantly, how do you build a direct channel that complements rather than cannibalizes your traditional distribution relationships?

A comprehensive exploration of building effective partnerships between pharmaceutical companies and health systems, with a focus on identifying and overcoming the barriers that prevent successful collaboration. From data sharing challenges to patient identification, this session examines how to create collaborative frameworks that benefit all stakeholders while improving patient care. Attendees will learn efficient channel engagement strategies and hear real-world examples of problems encountered and the solutions that successfully bridged collaboration gaps.

• Walk away with both a holistic understanding of the partnership ecosystem and practical strategies to overcome specific barriers in pharma-health system collaboration

• Learn from actual case studies showing how organizations identified problems, implemented solutions and built more productive relationships that deliver measurable value

• Gain clarity on how to navigate data gaps, improve channel engagement efficiency and create partnerships that drive mutual value while enhancing patient outcomes

• Investigate how WAC reductions are creating financial pressure across the distribution system, forcing contract negotiation and shrinking margin across wholesalers and distributors

• Understand how pricing pressure is reshaping contract terms and what manufacturers need to consider when renegotiating distributor and wholesaler agreements

• Explore how manufacturers can maintain patient access and channel stability while implementing pricing changes across a complex distribution network