Drugmakers often attend the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference to strut their stuff in front of potential investors or partners.
But at this year’s JPM in San Francisco, PharmaVoice asked industry leaders to think outside their company and point to other programs they’re watching closely.
Pharma companies need to scan the horizon. Leaders often track external readouts to inform R&D decisions, trial design and more. And in an industry full of curious scientists, many leaders want to see where the next breakthroughs are underway.
Here’s a look at the clinical-stage candidates pharma leaders said they’ve got their eyes on right now.
Potential cancer standouts
Oncology is likely to hold leaders’ attention across the industry this year.
In particular, cancer vaccines are where Nick Naclerio, a founding partner at Illumina Ventures, hopes to see progress.
“There are still so many cancers that are not treatable. We’ve had so much success with immunotherapies. But can we broaden that out?” he said. “Vaccines seem like one of the most promising approaches, especially with cancers like pancreatic.”
Unlike infectious disease shots aimed at preventing disease spread, “vaccines” in cancer are designed to prevent recurrence in already-diagnosed patients by targeting tumor mutations.
BioNTech is among the drug developers advancing therapies that work along these lines. The German biotech has two late-stage readouts slated for 2026, including a phase 3 study for BNT113 in head and neck cancer, and a phase 2 trial for autogene cevumeran in colon cancer, which is mid-stage for pancreatic cancer as well.
Bispecific antibodies are also being closely watched, as companies race to develop “the next Keytruda,” Troy Wilson, CEO and president of Kura Oncology, said. Specifically, Summit Therapeutics’ candidate ivonescimab has generated buzz, targeting both PD-1 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathways.
Summit is steeped in a flurry of late-stage activity with the candidate, which it licensed from China’s Akeso. The company filed its first BLA for ivonescimab this week in non-small cell lung cancer, and expects to read out phase 3 data from a head-to-head trial against Keytruda in the same type of cancer by mid-2026.
The closely watched ivonescimab has seen mixed clinical results, however, causing some analysts to suggest the drug may not become a mega-blockbuster on par with Keytruda.
“It’s a complicated space,” Wilson said. “[Ivonescimab] may have more risk than Wall Street realizes.”
While the bispecific drama plays out, Dr. Alexandra Snyder, senior vice president and head of translational medicine and discovery oncology at Merck & Co. will keep her eye on in vivo CAR-T cell therapies. If successful, developers of the up-and-coming technology could overcome the manufacturing limitations of autologous and off-the-shelf CAR-Ts by leveraging a gene vector to modify immune cells inside the body.
Progress is still early — the first in vivo CAR-T candidates entered the clinic in late 2024. But Gilead Sciences’ August acquisition of Interius BioTherapeutics and its in vivo CAR-T pipeline demonstrates interest and momentum in the space.
“In oncology, the technology comes in waves and the first-generation therapies are like the froth at the top of the wave,” Snyder explained. “I think we’ll start to see the froth for in vivo CAR-T.”
Leaps in neuroscience
Eli Lilly and its Alzheimer’s rivals Biogen and Eisai made history a few years back by winning approvals for their amyloid-targeting drugs Kisunla and Leqembi, respectively. Now, the stage is set to reach the next Alzheimer’s frontier — treating pre-symptomatic patients.
Both therapies are currently in late-stage trials for preclinical Alzheimer’s with readouts expected in 2027 or later. When they come, Dr. Andrew Plump, Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ president of research and development, will be watching closely to see how well the therapies work in that subset of patients.
Takeda staked its own claim in the arena in 2024 with a deal worth up to $2.1 billion to license an Alzheimer’s immunotherapy vaccine from AC Immune that also targets early Alzheimer’s patients.
“The pre-symptomatic space in Alzheimer’s is the sweet spot for vaccines,” Plump said.
And while competition is often the prime motivator for tracking other companies’ assets, pharma leaders also root for each other’s success.
“In the field of neuroscience and psychiatry we are all cheering for each other,” Meg Alexander, CEO and president of Ovid Therapeutics, said.
Alexander will be particularly interested to see how Xenon Pharmaceuticals’ lead candidate has fared in epilepsy — a therapeutic area where Ovid has been heavily invested. Xenon announced earlier this week that it expects topline data for the drug, azetukalner, from a phase 3 trial targeting focal onset seizures in March. Xenon could then file for approval in the second half of this year.
“Xenon has a different mechanism of action, but similar development strategy as us,” Alexander said. “Their work is important and could help set the stage for what good seizure management looks like.”
