Agenda for Life Sciences Masters 2026
Subject to change. CLE panels are designated by an asterisk after the panel title.
Monday, Nov 9, 2026
9:00 AM ET
From Molecule to Medicine: How Biopharmaceutical Innovation Actually Happens
Public debates about pharmaceutical patents often assume that the principal act of innovation is discovering or identifying a new active ingredient, and what follows is little more than routine execution. The reality of developing a medicine is considerably more complicated. Identifying a promising molecule is only the beginning of a very long process that will require years of additional research…
Larry Coury
Jim Kastenmayer
Sherry Knowles
Colin Sandercock
Gene Quinn
10:20 AM ET
Patents, Pricing, Competition and the Future of Medical Innovation
Developing a new medicine requires enormous investment, years of research and clinical testing, and acceptance of extraordinary technical and commercial risk. Patent protection has traditionally provided the exclusivity necessary to justify that investment. But pricing pressures, government intervention, competition policy, shortened effective exclusivity and persistent criticism of pharmaceutical patent portfolios are changing the economic assumptions on which life sciences innovation…
Ratib Ali
Christian Bauer
11:40 AM ET
The Evolving Life Sciences IP Rulebook: Tracking Congress, the USPTO and FDA
The rules governing life sciences innovation are increasingly being shaped across multiple fronts. Congress continues to consider legislation affecting patents and biopharmaceutical competition, while the USPTO and FDA are pursuing policies and initiatives that can materially alter patent protection, regulatory strategy and market entry. For companies investing billions in products with development timelines measured in years or decades, changes in…
Donna Meuth
1:30 PM ET
The AI Arms Race: How AI is Impacting R&D and Enabling Super-Fast Followers
Artificial intelligence is changing the competitive dynamics of life sciences R&D. Innovators are using increasingly powerful tools to identify candidates, predict structures and interactions, analyze enormous datasets and accelerate discovery. But the same capabilities can allow competitors to move with unprecedented speed once an innovator’s research enters the public domain. Life sciences companies are already confronting concerns that AI can…
Emily Johnson
Kwame Mensah
Corey Salsberg
2:50 PM ET
Inside the USPTO: What Life Sciences Patent Applicants Need to Know
Patent law establishes the substantive rules for examination, but the prosecution experience is also shaped by what happens inside the USPTO—examiner workloads and incentives, pendency, internal management, quality initiatives, training, examination guidance and the tools available to the examining corps. As the Office works to reduce its backlog and deploys increasingly sophisticated AI-assisted search and examination tools, the environment confronting…
4:10 PM ET
The PTAB Calculus: Developments, Trends and Strategy for Life Sciences Patents
IPR and PGR have become important components of life sciences patent disputes, but the PTAB environment continues to evolve. Institution standards, discretionary considerations, parallel litigation and developing Board and Federal Circuit precedent can materially affect whether a challenge proceeds and how patent owners and challengers should approach the proceeding. This panel will examine what is happening on the ground in…
5:30 PM ET
How Patent Risk Shapes Licensing, Acquisitions, Collaborations and Financing
In the life sciences, patent risk is business risk. Licensing agreements, acquisitions, research collaborations and financing decisions frequently depend on whether intellectual property can protect a product, platform or commercial opportunity—but certainty is rarely available when those decisions must be made. Patent applications may still be pending, the ultimate claim scope may be unknown, freedom-to-operate concerns may remain unresolved, and…
Tuesday, Nov 10, 2026
9:00 AM ET
Before the Patent: Clinical Trials, Collaborations and the Modern Section 102 Trap
For life sciences companies, patent problems frequently begin before anyone thinks there is a patent problem. Clinical trials, research collaborations, supply relationships, licensing discussions, presentations and other ordinary activities necessary to develop and commercialize a new therapy can create prior-art questions under Section 102 before an application is ever filed. This panel will examine Section 102 in the context of…
Brent R. Bellows, Ph.D.
Matt Beyersdorf
10:20 AM ET
The Strategic Applicant: Prosecuting Life Sciences Patents for What Comes Next
When a life sciences patent application is filed, no one knows exactly what the future holds. The invention may ultimately support a blockbuster product, become central to a collaboration or licensing transaction, increase the value of an acquisition target, provide negotiating leverage, or become the patent at the center of high-stakes litigation years later. Strategic prosecution therefore requires more than…
Sarah Fashena
Allison Gilder, Ph.D
John Rearick, Ph.D.
11:40 AM ET
The Patent-Term Puzzle: Maximizing PTA and PTE Across Life Sciences Portfolios
In the life sciences, the years at the end of a patent’s life are often the most commercially valuable. Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) and Patent Term Extension (PTE) provide statutory mechanisms for recovering time lost to delays at the USPTO and during regulatory review but maximizing that term across a complex portfolio requires planning well before anyone knows which patent—or…
Runa Shah-Qaderi
Anthony R. Prosser, Ph.D.
1:30 PM ET
Beyond the Patent Act: Judicially Created Doctrines and the Life Sciences Patent Bargain
Some of the most consequential restrictions on U.S. patent rights cannot be found in the text of the Patent Act. Patent eligibility exceptions, obviousness-type double patenting, prosecution laches and inequitable conduct are among the doctrines created or substantially developed by courts that can determine whether an issued patent remains valuable and enforceable. For the life sciences industry, where development timelines…
2:50 PM ET
After Hikma: Skinny Labels, Inducement and the Future of Method-of-Treatment Patents
The Supreme Court’s unanimous 2026 decision in Hikma v. Amarin reset the framework for pleading induced infringement in skinny-label cases. The Court held that the relevant question is whether a patent owner plausibly alleges that the defendant took affirmative steps to encourage infringement—not merely whether physicians could plausibly interpret statements as encouraging an infringing use. At the same time, the…
Adam Perlman
4:10 PM ET
Leading Life Sciences IP In-House: Strategy, Influence and Enterprise Execution
Leading an in-house life sciences IP function requires far more than knowing patent law. Senior IP counsel must navigate evolving legal doctrines, changing USPTO practices, regulatory and policy uncertainty, emerging technologies, competitive threats and litigation risk—while making decisions today about technologies and portfolios whose commercial consequences may not be known for years. The challenge is not simply identifying risk, but…
Colin Heitzmann
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