Reclaiming the Impossible: Biotech Leaders on Breaking Through in Diseases the Industry Forgot
- Date: June 22, 2026
- Time: 4:15 PM - 5:15 PM PT
- Location: San Diego Convention Center Room 24BC
For decades, the biotech innovation engine has produced extraordinary breakthroughs in cancer, rare diseases, and metabolic disorders. Yet across vast areas of medicine from preeclampsia to sarcopenia, dry eye disease, and neurodegeneration, progress has stalled. These are not rare conditions – they are common, costly, and catastrophic, affecting millions, but still without transformative therapies. Why? This session convenes leaders who have chosen to tackle diseases others abandoned as too complex or too commercially uncertain. Together, they will dissect where innovation has faltered in disease biology, technological advancements, or clinical application, and explore what’s finally changing that equation. Attendees will leave with a clearer view of where the biggest opportunities and the toughest roadblocks truly lie, and how new scientific and technological breakthroughs can help biotech reclaim the impossible.
Meet the panelists & Moderator

Karen Tzach Tuzman, PhD
Director of Biopharma Intelligence and Head of Discovery and Preclinical Research, BioCentury Inc.

Ann Beliën, PhD
Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Rejuvenate Biomed

Elizabeth Jeffords, MBT
President and CEO, Iolyx Therapeutics

Bhanu Jena, PhD
Co-Founder & Academic Chairman, Porosome Therapeutics

Rick Pauls, MBA
President and Chief Executive Officer, DiaMedica Therapeutics
BIO International 2026
Bringing together industry experts to discuss the next wave of innovation in biotech.