[REUTERS PHARMA EUROPE 2026]
The sessions worth your time in Barcelona.
A curated guide for commercial, omnichannel and customer experience leaders who don't have three days to waste on the wrong rooms.
Wednesday 22 to Friday 24 April 2026
CCIB, Barcelona
This year Reuters has rebuilt the event into one open space with four dedicated track rooms, designed to break the silos between commercial, medical, market access and digital. The best sessions for you depend on the problem you are trying to solve right now. Here is how to navigate it.
Omnichannel & Customer Experience
If you are leading omnichannel strategy, customer engagement or HCP experience.
Last year's event (at Reuters Pharma 2025) laid out a blueprint for rewiring customer engagement with AI across segmentation, targeting and activation. This year the question shifts from vision to execution. What has actually moved the needle, and where are teams still stuck?
DAY 1 · WEDNESDAY 22 APRIL, AFTERNOON · PANEL
From omnichannel vision to omnichannel reality. What has changed and where are we stuck?
Speakers from MSD, Bayer and CSL examine which omnichannel programmes have progressed from pilot to scale, and where org structures, data silos and misaligned KPIs continue to block real orchestration.
DAY 1 · WEDNESDAY 22 APRIL, 14:50–15:50 · WORKSHOP
Mapping the real HCP journey. Discovery to conversion metrics.
A hands-on session on implementing gen-AI-optimised content strategies and tracking curated HCP journey metrics that demonstrate engagement impact beyond vanity web analytics. Speakers from CSL, Bayer and AstraZeneca.
DAY 2 · THURSDAY 23 APRIL, MORNING · CASE STUDY
Turning congress into a live intelligence engine.
Co-create a blueprint for resolving HCP signals from booth interactions, symposium Q&As and KOL conversations into CRM records. Triggering field follow-up and feeding real-time omnichannel orchestration.
DAY 2 · THURSDAY 23 APRIL, AFTERNOON · PANEL
Customer journey orchestration. Uniting medical, commercial and support touchpoints.
How leading teams are creating seamless end-to-end experiences by removing the silos between functions. With Cyril Mandry (MSD), Angela Genco (Bayer Italy) and peers sharing what is actually working.
WHY THESE MATTER
If you're still running omnichannel as a set of parallel channels rather than an orchestrated experience, these sessions address the operational reality. Identity resolution, signal routing and cross-functional data flows. Over 30 Director-level omnichannel and CX leaders from AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, Bayer, MSD, Sanofi and CSL are attending. This is the highest concentration of omnichannel decision-makers at any European pharma event this year. The hallway conversations will be as valuable as the sessions.
AI & Commercial Technology
If you are evaluating AI tools, building business cases or leading digital transformation.
The AI sessions this year move past the hype cycle. Expect peer-led case studies on what is actually deployed, what ROI looks like and a co-designed framework for evaluating AI tools without getting burned by vendor promises.
DAY 1 · WEDNESDAY 22 APRIL, 11:00 · STRATEGIC DEBATE
The AI debate. Where should pharma place its bets?
A structured debate on where AI is delivering real value in pharma commercial operations versus where it is still overpromised. Expect honest disagreement, not polished vendor demos.
DAY 2 · THURSDAY 23 APRIL, MORNING · CASE STUDY
AI pilot case studies. From proof of concept to business impact.
Concrete examples from pharma companies that have moved AI beyond pilot. Covering content generation, field force augmentation, predictive segmentation and commercial decision-making.
DAY 1 · WEDNESDAY 22 APRIL, 14:50–15:50 · WORKSHOP
Co-designing a future-proof AI evaluation framework.
Peers collaboratively build an evaluation framework for AI tools, covering compliance, scalability, integration and actual business outcomes, so you can make confident technology decisions rather than reactive ones.
DAY 2 · THURSDAY 23 APRIL, 9:45–10:25 · PANEL
Data infrastructure that actually powers AI. Breaking fragmentation.
A new track for 2026. Tackling the unglamorous but critical problem of harmonising data infrastructure to enable AI-driven insights and compliant commercial decision-making. With leaders from GSK and Takeda.
WHY THESE MATTER
If your leadership is asking "what's our AI strategy?" and you need more than a vendor slide deck, these sessions give you peer benchmarks and evaluation rigour from teams that have actually shipped. GSK and Takeda are both sending commercial technology leadership to the data infrastructure panel. There's also a session on solving AI adoption through behavioural science (Thu 23 April, 16:10). This is exactly the lens most implementations are missing.
Launch Excellence & Go-to-Market
If you are planning a launch, leading commercial excellence or redesigning field strategy.
With several major assets launching across Europe in 2026, the launch excellence sessions focus on what separates the launches that hit trajectory from those that stall. And it is rarely the molecule.
DAY 2 · THURSDAY 23 APRIL, AFTERNOON · PANEL
Go-to-market in a multi-channel world. Field, digital and everything in between.
How are commercial teams redesigning their go-to-market models when HCPs want digital-first engagement but field still drives conversion? Leaders from Boehringer Ingelheim, Astellas and Lundbeck share what is working.
DAY 2 · THURSDAY 23 APRIL, 16:40–17:00 · CASE STUDY
Launch readiness. Building the commercial machine before the approval lands.
A case study on pre-launch commercial planning, from market shaping through to field readiness, and how teams are using behavioural insights to design adoption pathways before day one.
DAY 1 · WEDNESDAY 22 APRIL, 17:00–17:40 · PANEL
Sales force excellence. Rethinking how field teams create value.
Moving past the more calls equals more sales model to examine how field teams are being repositioned as orchestrators of the customer experience, not just message deliverers.
WHY THESE MATTER
Launch failure is almost never a science problem. It's a decision architecture problem. These sessions tackle the organisational and behavioural barriers that cause good products to underperform. Boehringer Ingelheim, Astellas and Lundbeck are all presenting on go-to-market redesign. Three companies at very different stages of rethinking field force models. With several major assets launching across Europe in 2026, the case studies here will be unusually concrete.
Patient Access & Value Demonstration
If you are in market access, HEOR, medical affairs or patient engagement.
The access landscape in Europe is getting harder, not easier. These sessions deal with how to build evidence packages that payers actually find compelling and how to expand access without the usual patient centricity platitudes.
DAY 2 · THURSDAY 23 APRIL, 15:00–15:40 · PANEL
Optimising market access. Evidence, value and payer engagement.
How teams are delivering robust evidence packages and go-to-market strategies that resonate with European payers. With Michela Pantaleoni (Chiesi Group) and peers from across the industry.
DAY 3 · FRIDAY 24 APRIL, 9:45–10:25 · PANEL
Scaling impact in low-resource settings. Inclusive business models.
Practical approaches to expanding patient access through business model innovation, not just pricing concessions, and what that means for commercial sustainability.
DAY 2 · THURSDAY 23 APRIL, MORNING · CASE STUDY
Real-world evidence. From regulatory compliance to commercial advantage.
How forward-thinking teams are using RWE not just to satisfy regulators but to build differentiated commercial narratives that reshape payer and prescriber perception.
WHY THESE MATTER
Access is where strategy meets reality. If your evidence story isn't landing with payers, or your patient engagement feels like a checkbox exercise, these sessions address the structural reasons why. Chiesi, Takeda and several market access directors are presenting on evidence strategy and pricing models. The Friday morning panel on health system partnerships is one of the few sessions that tackles sustainability and affordability together. Don't miss it.
Main Stage: Don't Miss These
Regardless of your function, these are the sessions everyone will be talking about.
DAY 1 · WEDNESDAY 22 APRIL, 10:30–11:00 · ORANGE STAGE · KEYNOTE INTERVIEW
The future of medicines regulation. A conversation with EMA Executive Director Emer Cooke.
Reuters' Maggie Fick interviews the head of the EMA on digital health regulation, real-world evidence, manufacturing resilience and the geopolitics of global supply chains. This will set the tone for the entire event.
DAY 1 · WEDNESDAY 22 APRIL, 9:00–9:40 · ORANGE STAGE · KEYNOTE
Navigating Europe's shifting pharmaceutical landscape.
Senior Reuters journalists examine the growing policy pressures reshaping pharma in Europe, from pricing scrutiny to global health funding cuts, and what it means for commercial strategy in the next eighteen months.
DAY 1 · WEDNESDAY 22 APRIL, 9:00 · ORANGE STAGE · CEO FIRESIDE
Leadership perspectives. Carlos Gallardo (Almirall) and Dirk Hoheisel (Lundbeck).
Two CEOs with very different portfolios and geographies share how they are making strategic bets in an increasingly uncertain European market.
DAY 2 · THURSDAY 23 APRIL, 16:10–16:30 · BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE
Pharma's technological blind spot. Solving the AI adoption crisis with behavioural science.
This is the session Limbic was set up to have. Most AI rollouts in pharma fail for behavioural reasons, not technical ones. Evaluation frameworks, governance and tooling only solve part of the problem. Worth clearing your late afternoon on Thursday to attend.
WHY THESE MATTER
The main stage sessions are where the regulatory and geopolitical context gets set. Everything you discuss in the track rooms will be shaped by what is said here, especially the EMA interview.
WHO'S IN THE ROOM
Conversations we'd love to have this week.
Reuters Pharma Europe brings together the people actually wrestling with these problems day to day. A short list of the conversations I'd genuinely enjoy having over coffee.
OMNICHANNEL & CX
If you're working on orchestration at AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, Bayer, MSD, Sanofi or CSL, Martin would love to compare notes on what's actually moving the needle between channel consistency and true journey design. Where's the real unlock showing up for you?
AI & COMMERCIAL TECH
If you're at GSK, Takeda or anywhere shipping AI into commercial workflows, Martin would love to hear what's surviving the pilot-to-production gap and how you're thinking about behavioural friction inside your own teams.
LAUNCH & GO-TO-MARKET
If you're at Boehringer Ingelheim, Astellas or Lundbeck working on a 2026 or 2027 asset, let's talk about how field force models and launch readiness are being redesigned around the new commercial reality.
PATIENT ACCESS & VALUE
If you're at Chiesi, Takeda or any market access team rethinking evidence and pricing, Martin would love to hear how you're landing value stories with payers in the current climate.
If any of this sounds like your week, drop Martin a note. Most of the best conversations at Reuters happen between sessions, not in them.
[ALSO IN BARCELONA]
Let's talk over coffee.
I'm Martin Galton, founder of Limbic Consulting. I'll be attending sessions across all four tracks, with a particular focus on the omnichannel orchestration, launch readiness and behavioural science discussions.
Most of my work sits at the intersection of behavioural science and commercial execution. Helping omnichannel teams design engagement strategies that actually change prescriber behaviour, not just generate impressions. I work on launch planning, customer experience redesign and the decision architecture behind how brand teams build and execute strategy.
I have worked across brands at Sanofi, Roche, ViiV Healthcare, Novartis and CSL Vifor. On everything from rare disease to respiratory and nephrology franchises. Before starting Limbic, I was Head of Strategy at a Havas Lynx for 8 years and prior to that I worked across a number of consumer verticles.
Book a coffee chat in Barcelona.
Pick a time that works during the event. Martin will meet you at the CCIB or wherever suits.
or email directly at martin.galton@limbic.co.uk