25th Annual Market Access Summit 2026 | Day 2

Gain insight into today’s sessions so you can get the most out of your conference experience.

Prime Minister Carney has called on Canadians to build—to invest boldly in the projects and systems that will define this country’s next chapter. Innovative medicines should be part of that conversation—not as a cost to be contained, but as a strategic investment that helps to power our workforce and economy. Walk away with actionable insights to:

• Shift the conversation from short-term healthcare expenditures to long-term value creation.
• Examine the link between timely access to innovative medicines, improved health outcomes, and healthcare system resilience.
• Understand how innovative medicines support a more productive workforce, a more resilient economy, and contribute to national security preparedness in an increasingly uncertain world.
• Explore how countries that prioritize life sciences and health innovation are attracting investment, talent, research, and manufacturing capacity.
• Identify the policy conditions required to make Canada a global destination for innovation, clinical trials, and biopharmaceutical investment.

Explore how a modernized approach to innovative medicines can strengthen Canada’s health, economic, security, and innovation objectives for decades to come.

Canada currently has the longest wait times in the G-7 for access to new medications.  On top of the lengthy Canadian approval process, global economic uncertainty adds further uncertainty to launch prospects.  Gain key insights into how manufacturers are navigating this whitewater environment so you can:

• Gain clarity on how Canadian policies and market access is different from other G-7 countries
• What avenues are potentially available to improve time to market
• Develop your strategy for timing and executing your launch with greater confidence
• Determine how best to co-ordinate the launch of drugs with companion devices

Confidently navigate today’s turbulence to develop successful launch strategies.

Patient Support Programs have emerged as a critical component in the path to market access.  As the locus where patient adherence is supported and RWE is gathered, they are important to establishing the value and potential of new targeted therapies.  Adopt best practices to:

• Analyze the evolving role of PSPs in gathering data for use as RWE and to address health equity challenges across provinces
• Strengthen the collaboration between PSPs, patient advocacy groups and HTA bodies to establish value to the patient
• Link patient-reported outcomes (PROs) to long-term funding agreements to ensure therapies are delivering on what was promised.
• Collate and provide data to support the patient experience and report any adverse effects.

Learn how to effectively leverage data generated through PSPs to gather RWE, establish value for patients and support equitable access.

Take a deep dive down the innovation rabbit hole in one of our roundtable discussions. Share common challenges and best practices with your market access peers on a topic of your choosing:

1. Companion Diagnostics & Precision Medicine Funding 
2. AI Tools in Market Access Operations 
3. Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs) in Renegotiations 
4. Launch Sequencing in 2026/2027 
5. Negotiating for Combination Therapies: Multi-Manufacturer Frameworks 
6. Rare Disease Strategy: Navigating the 2027 Funding Transition

Implementing national Pharmacare will come with challenges. Understand how you can best use the early lessons and experiences from British Columbia and assess how they are influencing the pipeline. Develop a blueprint to: 

• Amplify how pharmacare is being implemented at a provincial level in BC.
• Bolster the impact of federal funding on provincial drug budget allocation.
• Address early signals on how pipeline prioritization may shift.
• Adapt implications for access to high-cost therapies, including rare diseases.
• Master what Pharmacare could mean for broader market access strategy in Canada.

Assess how these changes are influencing your pipeline prioritization, access decisions, and future funding for areas such as rare diseases.

Analyze the psychology of the LOI and the decision-making triggers that move a negotiation from a stalemate to a Letter of Intent (LOI).  Accelerate your agreement process. Create a roadmap to: 

• Heighten creative risk-mitigation by evaluating the innovative financial and clinical data models bridging the gap between the manufacturer’s asking price and the payer budget caps. 
• Perfect the role of non-price concessions, identifying those that sway the final outcome. 
• Master navigating the “No” and strategize for re-entry and renegotiation when the initial proposal fails to meet provincial or pCPA mandates. 

 Prepare your negotiation team with the data, flexibility, and tactical foresight required to secure successful agreements in a highly scrutinized payer environment. 

Take a deep dive into an in-depth overview of key updates related to the implementation of the PMPRB guidelines, recent consultations, and activities over the past year. Adopt best practices to: 

• Achieve insights into the latest developments in hearings and the new practice directions. 
• Adopt a clear understanding of the role and strategic value of PMPRB reports for industry stakeholders. 
• Master practical guidance on how to leverage PMPRB insights to inform pricing, access, and evidence strategies. 

Gain a better understanding of how these evolving elements translate into actionable insights for pricing strategy, compliance, and stakeholder engagement. 

Now coming into the final year of its first three-year phase, this federal initiative has been largely successful but has also uncovered some major challenges.  Gain actionable insight on what’s next to help you:

• Analyze how well the bilateral agreements are working between the federal, provincial and territorial governments
• Understand where deficiencies still exist that need targeted funding
• Determine how Canada’s rare disease strategy ranks as measured against those of other countries in delivering access to treatment
• Position your organization for Phase 2 of the national strategy beyond 2027

Gain insight to identify key areas that will be targeted as this initiative moves toward Phase 2.

The continuing entry of generics and biosimilars into the Canadian market has offered significant cost savings for payers.  Ostensibly, this should free up financial resources for payers to pay for the new curative therapies coming onto the market.  This would eventually further reduce health care expenditures overall, creating a virtuous circle that benefits all stakeholders.  It’s a great theory, but is it actually happening?  Take back to your team a blueprint to:

• Assess how the market has responded since biosimilars were mandated for public payers and adopted across Canada
• Analyse the lifecycle of your portfolio to determine when pursuing secondary patenting makes sense and when it doesn’t
• Understand how public payers can harness health economic research to justify greater expenditures on new, curative therapies, and what internal budgetary hurdles must be overcome
• Use the economic benefits that generics and biosimilars bring to the healthcare system to promote a more collaborative approach to drug development in Canada

Learn where opportunities will emerge when Brands and Generics co-exist in a stable, balanced marketplace.

Explore how the FAST program works and differs from traditional pathways. Apply those lessons to your oncology products. Develop a blueprint to: 

• Achieve early results and lessons from oncology products progressing through FAST. 
• Optimize how FAST is changing engagement with pCPA and negotiation timelines. 
• Identify what this means for manufacturers seeking earlier access. 
• Transform how FAST could expand beyond oncology or specific product types. 

 Take away early outcomes from your oncology products progressing through the FAST pathway.

Embrace the last-mile challenge and evaluate specialized distribution models. These will ensure equity of access for your patients in rural or remote Canadian regions. Source practical tips to: 

• Amplify cold-chain 2.0 by analyzing the latest sensor and monitoring technologies that mitigate the risks associated with temperature-sensitive specialty products. 
• Achieve predictive resilience by utilizing AI-driven demand forecasting and real-time data to anticipate provincial shortages before impacting the patient. 
• Master specialty pharmacy integration by strengthening the link between manufacturers, distributors, and specialty pharmacies to streamline the “order-to-infusion” timeline. 

Transform your supply chain from a cost centre into a strategic asset that guarantees therapy continuity and enhances the overall patient experience. 

Review the key solutions and takeaways from the conference. Source a summary of action points to implement in your work.