Drug development and rapid innovation are unlikely bedfellows.
Drug development is, by its very nature, a long-winded, wieldy, hyper-expensive process. However, the integration of artificial intelligence, high-throughput screening techniques, and advanced computational modelling has catalysed the identification of potential drug candidates and expedited the prediction of their efficacy and safety profiles.
Are we finally entering an era where the once-distant notions of drug development and rapid innovation are becoming increasingly intertwined? And what will it take for the industry to fully harness the potential of novel tools and strategies to address unmet medical needs in a more efficient and agile manner?
Welcome
Life sciences, pharma and biotech
Welcome to Europe's hottest event for life sciences, pharma and biotech.
Why attend HLTH Europe?
Join us for HLTH Europe 2025, the event uniting every segment of the European health ecosystem. Building on the immense success of our inaugural event, HLTH Europe 2025 will connect over 4,500 health leaders from more than 50 countries, including top decision-makers from providers, payers, government, pharma, startups, investors, and health tech.
This is your chance to engage with Europe’s foremost health officials, policymakers, and politicians as they share best practices and collaboratively shape the future of healthcare. If you want to drive meaningful change and be at the forefront of healthcare innovation, HLTH Europe 2025 is the place to be.
2024 pharma agenda highlights
Thrills, pills, and VC bills: What will it take to unleash innovation in the world of drug development
Inclusive clinical trials: Why we really shouldn't still be talking about this in 2024 (but have to!)
In 2022, the US’s National Academy of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine (NASEM) released a damning report into underrepresentation in clinical trials.
"While progress has been made with representation of white women in clinical trials and clinical research, there has been little progress in the last three decades to increase participation of racial and ethnic minority population groups."
Whilst we celebrate diversity in Europe, from race to gender, sexuality to age, participants in clinical trials remain overwhelmingly white and male. However, until interest and investment to improve diversity and representativeness in trials comes to the forefront, the goals of diversification remain poorly articulated and understood.
We all know how important diversity is, but how exactly can we make clinical trials attractive to all?
Dr. Google will see you now: Improving patient education or miseducating the masses?
We’ve all done it.
You get an odd rash, or a strange pain in your back, and off to the internet you go.
But googling your symptoms only tells you which diseases have the best SEO. There are pros and cons to googling your symptoms (or Binging them, if you’re really alternative), but in this interconnected world, where access remains an issue, the number of people doing it will continue to rise.
How can we ensure that search engines prioritise accurate, accessible, and up-to-date health information, and steer those in need away from misinformation?
Dr. Google will always be faster and more accessible than traditional healthcare systems. Maybe, in fact, search engines are exactly what the doctor ordered.
Decode, detect, and defy: Expectations for digital biomarkers
In the past, the idea that technology could offer earlier detection and prevention of diseases, unparalleled insights into diseases currently not tracked well with diagnostic tests, and improved patient engagement, safety and quality of care, would have been laughable.
On the face of it, digital biomarkers are the holy grail, beautifully blurring the patient-consumer boundary, and providing clinicians with previously inconceivable levels of monitoring and data, and patients a level of health autonomy never previously possible. But there is no perfect fit.
Lack of precision, gaps in both evidence requirements and economic models, and questions around data ownership abound. Can digital biomarkers rise up to the expectations?
2024 speaker highlights
David Evendon-Challis
Head of R&D and Chief Scientific Officer
Bayer Consumer Health
Switzerland
John Halamka
President, Mayo Clinic Platform
Mayo Clinic
USA
Karen DeSalvo
Chief Health Officer
USA
Karen Madden
Chief Technology Officer
Merck Life Science
USA
Simon Turner
Partner
Sofinnova Partners
France
Stephen Ranjan
Global Head, Digital Health Pharma Personalized Healthcare
Roche
Switzerland
See the 2024 pharma agenda
With over 80 sessions and 300 speakers at HLTH Europe 2024, we curated a tailored agenda for pharma attendees. See the highlights below.