13
May

08:00 AM PST

Medicinal Chemistry

Name: Medicinal Chemistry Strategy Meeting West Coast USA 2026
Start: 2026-01-01T08:00
End: 2026-05-13T18:00
Location: Hard Rock Hotel San Diego

&

Drug Discovery Biology

Strategy Meeting West Coast USA 2026

Reinvigorating Productivity in Pharma & Biotech R&D Through Advanced Technologies and Innovative Techniques that Interrogate Activity and Mechanisms

Hard Rock Hotel San Diego

A MEETING EXPERIENCE UNLIKE ANY OTHER

Fresh Medicinal Chemistry Insights

Tired of the same conference experience? Real discussions and genuine networking are often promised, but not always delivered. Proventa International’s R&D Strategy Meetings are designed to avoid the pitfalls of a typical conference, by providing the right environment to make those important connections through interactive roundtable discussions, exclusive networking and keynote panel debates. Join Medicinal Chemistry professionals from across the West Coast, in San Diego, to discover new insights and take your company’s mission to the next level.

What makes our strategy meetings unique?

Roundtable Discussions

Intimate discussions led by renowned industry experts. Have your voice heard and debate alongside like-minded life science executives.

Unrivalled Networking

With senior delegation from big pharma and innovative biotech from across the West Coast, you can network with peers from different locations, all in one place.

Personalised Agenda

Choose the topics that matter to you. Reserve your place at the roundtable discussions and ensure your whole day delivers the insights you need to hear.

Solutions to your Problems

We’ve partnered with the best solution providers to solve your biggest challenges. Engage in pre-arranged, private meetings to address your specific needs and find a tangible solution.

Industry Researched Topics

We guarantee our agenda is up-to-date and mission critical because its designed by you. We speak to our extended network of senior decision makers to ensure the most important topics are discussed.

Senior Decision Makers

The entire strategy meeting is specifically tailored to the needs and challenges of senior life science professionals. Discover how your peers are dealing with the same challenges as you.

Our Facilitators

Our panel of facilitators play a key role in shaping the agenda for the day. See who will be bringing their expertise to the table at Medicinal Chemistry Strategy Meeting.

Andrea Small-Howard

President GB Sciences

Bishnu Nayak

Senior Director/Site Head Neologics Bio

David Bredt

Founder, Chief Scientific Officer Rapport Therapeutics

David Weitz

Chief Executive Officer and Founder Syrna Therapeutics

Devin Swanson

Director, External Innovation Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicines

Igor O. Nasonkin

CEO Phythera Therapeutics

<p><strong>Igor Nasonkin</strong> is a Founder, Director, and Principal Investigator, with 9 years in industry (Phythera Therapeutics, Lineage Cell Therapeutics, Biotime, Bresagen) and 24 years in academia (UPitt, NIH, JHU, MIT, UM, UBC). He specialized in small molecule-based therapies modulating neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, botanical-based drugs for cancer therapeutics, cell & gene therapies (retina, brain), stem cell-based therapies, and building new projects and teams from the ground up. Igor has extensive experience in building and leading several productive & cohesive research teams, conceptualizing new ideas and research directions, grant writing (NIH, DOD, CIRM, foundation grants), manuscript writing, drafting patent applications, sponsored projects agreements, and business plans. He has written for a variety of Scientific reviewers (several journals), while being a member of the Editorial Board (several journals). His successfully funded SBIR grants include: 5R44EY027654 09/30/2017- 5/31/2019; 3 R44 EY 027654-02 S1 06/01/2019-05/31/2020</p>

Leo Kirkovsky

Director, Clinical Assay Group Pfizer

Mark Nelson

Vice President, Chemistry and Co-Founder Neumedics

Mehran Moghaddam

CEO OROX Biosciences, Inc.

Neil Raheja

Founder, President, and COO Venquis Therapeutics

Sampath Kumar Anandan

Vice President of Discovery Inipharm

Sanjeev Thohan

Scientific Advisory Board Member Cogentis Therapeutics/ Phoenix Molecular Designs

Sean Sullivan

Vice President Arcturus Therapeutics

Susan Whitehead

Board Director PACT Pharma

Shicheng Guo

Senior Director of Translational Genetics and Data Science Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals

Our Past Facilitators

Andrea Small-Howard

President GB Sciences

Bill Jackson, Ph.D

Founder & CEO Base Pair Biotechnologies, Inc.

Bishnu Nayak

Senior Director/Site Head Neologics Bio

Bruce Kovacs

Afecta Pharmaceuticals

Elliott J. Brecht

Director of Business Development SAI Life

Fernando Aleman

Founder and CSO Navega Therapeutics

Igor O. Nasonkin

CEO Phythera Therapeutics

Jian Zuo

Co-founder and CEO Ting Therapeutics

Klaus Simonsen

Vice President, Head of External Research & Innovation Lundbeck

Mehran Moghaddam

CEO OROX Biosciences, Inc.

Moorthy Palanki

Program Director / Professor, Biotechnology California State University San Marcos

Sang Van

CEO Paramita Therapeutics, Inc.

Sudar Alagarsamy

Executive Director Program Management Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals

Tal Teitz

Co-founder Ting Therapeutics

Yoshi Satoh

Vice President of Chemistry Rev Therapeutics

Zev Wisotsky

Director, Drug Discovery New Modality Solutions Revvity Signals

Zhiyong Wang

Founder and Chief Scientific Officer Venquis Therapeutics

OUR AGENDA

See Which Topics Are Up For Discussion

08:30 – 09:00

09:00 – 10:00

Roundtable Tracks

AI/ML
AI-Driven Design for Challenging Modalities & “Hard” Targets (e.g. Kinases, Allosteric Sites, Undruggables, Protein Degraders)

-Sanjeev Thohan
Scientific Advisory Board Member
Cogentis Therapeutics/ Phoenix Molecular Designs

DMPK / ADME & Toxicology
De-Risking Novel Modalities: Oligonucleotides, LNPs, RNA Therapeutics (Topic TBC)

-Sean Sullivan
Vice President
Arcturus Therapeutics

Chemical Biology, Targeted Protein Degradation & Undruggables
Drugging mRNA With Small Molecules: Opportunities And Hurdles

-David Weitz
Chief Executive Officer and Founder
Syrna Therapeutics

Target Identification/ Lead Optimization
Structure Enabled Design Transforming Early Discovery and Fast Tracking Lead Optimization

-David Bredt
Founder, Chief Scientific Officer
Rapport Therapeutics

Integrated Drug Discovery
Integrated Drug Discovery to API Synthesis

-Mark Nelson
Vice President, Chemistry and Co-Founder
Neumedics

Private Equity, Venture Capital & Strategic Partnerships In Drug Discovery
Partnering to Shorten the Discovery and Development Timeline (Topic TBC)

-Devin Swanson
Director, External Innovation
Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicines

11:10 – 12:10

Roundtable Tracks

AI/ML
Converging Data, Science, and Automation: How Unified Digital Frameworks Accelerate Multi-Modal Drug Discovery

SPONSOR

DMPK / ADME & Toxicology
Breaking Bottlenecks in Preclinical Development: Integrated ADME, Safety and Bioanalysis Solutions for Novel Modalities

SPONSOR

Chemical Biology, Targeted Protein Degradation & Undruggables
The Next Generation of Degrader Architectures Reshaping Undruggable Targets in 2026 – Beyond PROTACs 2.0

SPONSOR

Target Identification/ Lead Optimization
Streamlining Chemistry, Biology, and Analytics: Integrated Platforms for Faster Hit-to‑Lead and Lead-to‑Preclinical Transitions

SPONSOR

Integrated Drug Discovery
Holistic Risk Management: From Early‑Stage Discovery to Preclinical Development — Minimizing Failures through Integrated Workflows

Revvity Signals

Private Equity, Venture Capital & Strategic Partnerships In Drug Discovery
The Role of Machine Learning and AI-Powered Data Platforms in Shaping Future Investment Decisions and Portfolio Strategy

SPONSOR

12:15 – 13:15

Roundtable Tracks

AI/ML
AI-Enabled Design for Complex Biology: CNS Targets, RNA Therapeutics, Multi-modal / Multitarget Drugs, Personalized Medicine (Topic TBC)

-Shicheng Guo
Senior Director of Translational Genetics and Data Science
Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals

DMPK / ADME & Toxicology
Optimizing Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics at Scale: Modern DMPK Capabilities for Predictive Preclinical Development (Topic TBC)

-Leo Kirkovsky
Director, Clinical Assay Group
Pfizer

Chemical Biology, Targeted Protein Degradation & Undruggables
Targeting the Undruggable at Scale Integrating Chemical Biology Deep Learning and Next-Gen Screening

Target Identification/ Lead Optimization
The New Frontier of Hit Identification: High-Dimension Screens, DNA Encoded Libraries & Virtual Exploration (Topic TBC)

-Bishnu Nayak
Senior Director/Site Head
Neologics Bio

Integrated Drug Discovery
Balancing Potency and Safety: The Future of Nature-Derived, Targeted Cancer Therapeutics

-Igor Nasonkin
Co-founder & CEO
Phythera Therapeutics

Private Equity, Venture Capital & Strategic Partnerships In Drug Discovery
Partnering Science and Strategy: Translating Integrated Discovery Pipelines into Value for Investors, Collaborators, and Patients (Topic TBC)

-Susan Whitehead
Board Director
PACT Pharma

15:10 – 16:10

Roundtable Tracks

AI/ML
The Autonomous Chemist: Large Chemical Models and Self-Driving Optimization Loops

DMPK / ADME & Toxicology
ADME & Safety for RNA, Oligonucleotides, and LNP Platforms: What Chemists Must Know

Chemical Biology, Targeted Protein Degradation & Undruggables
Hit-to-Lead Strategies for PROTACs, Molecular Glues & Targeted Protein Degradation

Target Identification/ Lead Optimization
Discovery in RNA & Oligonucleotide Therapeutics

Integrated Drug Discovery
Integrating Novel Modalities Into End to End Drug Discovery Pipelines (Topic TBC)

-Sampath Kumar Anandan
Vice President of Discovery
Inipharm

Private Equity, Venture Capital & Strategic Partnerships In Drug Discovery
Enabling Biotech and Virtual Pharma — Outsourced R&D, Manufacturing, and Testing for Lean, High‑Velocity Drug Developers

-Mehran Moghaddam
CEO
OROX Biosciences, Inc.

16:30 – 17:00

Aligning Capital, Capability, and Curiosity: The Future of Venture and Partnership in Drug Discovery

Watch to hear what your colleagues had to say…

Hotel & Venue

Hard Rock Hotel San Diego

You’re the main act in San Diego. At Hard Rock Hotel, we immerse you in our musical amenities, world-class service, and intoxicating location in downtown San Diego. Tour the Gaslamp Quarter on an Electra bike and walk a block to Petco Park.

Hotel Details Map & Directions Parking

Here To Help

Want to know more? Interested in sponsoring the event? Need help registering your team? Just get in touch and a member of the team will be happy to help.

Europe

USA East

USA West

Webinars

Dinners & Spotlights

R&D

R&D San Diego

Drug Discovery Biology & Bioinformatics Strategy Meeting West Coast USA 2024

&

Strategy Meeting West Coast USA 2026

<img class="lazy" decoding="async" src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201%201'%3E%3C/svg%3E" data-src="https://proventainternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/location.png" >Hard Rock Hotel San Diego

Fresh Medicinal Chemistry Insights

What makes our strategy meetings unique?

Roundtable Discussions

Unrivalled Networking

Personalised Agenda

Solutions to your Problems

Industry Researched Topics

Senior Decision Makers

Our Facilitators

Andrea Small-Howard

Bishnu Nayak

David Bredt

David Weitz

Devin Swanson

Igor O. Nasonkin

Leo Kirkovsky

Mark Nelson

Mehran Moghaddam

Neil Raheja

Sampath Kumar Anandan

Sanjeev Thohan

Sean Sullivan

Susan Whitehead

Shicheng Guo

Our Past Facilitators

Andrea Small-Howard

Bill Jackson, Ph.D

Bishnu Nayak

Bruce Kovacs

Elliott J. Brecht

Fernando Aleman

Igor O. Nasonkin

Jian Zuo

Klaus Simonsen

Mehran Moghaddam

Moorthy Palanki

Sang Van

Sudar Alagarsamy

Tal Teitz

Yoshi Satoh

Zev Wisotsky

Zhiyong Wang

OUR AGENDA

See Which Topics Are Up For Discussion

Breakfast & Registration

Opening Keynote

Roundtable ( Pharma/Biotech )

Roundtable Tracks

Refreshment Break

Networking/1-1 Meetings

Roundtable ( Solutions )

Roundtable Tracks

SPONSOR

SPONSOR

SPONSOR

SPONSOR

Revvity Signals

SPONSOR

Roundtable ( Pharma/Biotech )

Roundtable Tracks

Networking Lunch

Networking/1-1 Meetings

Afternoon Keynote Presentation

Roundtable ( Pharma/Biotech )

Roundtable Tracks

Afternoon Refreshment Break

Panel Discussion

Aligning Capital, Capability, and Curiosity: The Future of Venture and Partnership in Drug Discovery

Drinks & Canapes Reception

Hard Rock Hotel San Diego