JPM 2026: what’s the outlook like this year? 

The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Summit (JPM) serves as the world’s largest healthcare conference where healthcare professionals, scientists, and innovators meet with investors to set the agenda for the year, scout innovation, and gather funding. It’s a critical week for them to pitch their pipelines and to raise capital. This year, it took place again in San Francisco from January 12th to the 15th. As we are now halfway through January, let’s look at predictions and trends forecast for 2026, according to attendees at JPM 2026. 

JPM 2026 signals investments in cancer therapeutics to expand, radiopharma on the rise

In cancer research and development (R&D), top pharmas Roche announced that it aims to expand its CHF 35.6 billion ($44.5 billion) sales from last year on the back of nearly 20 blockbuster drugs. A big portion of its sales are from its therapies for breast cancer such as Phesgo, Kadcyla, and Perjet and Tecentriq for solid tumors. Now, all eyes are on giredestrant, an estrogen receptor degrader in phase 3 trials for breast cancer.  

While Roche revealed plans to ramp up cancer R&D, JPM 2026 did not see many deals in the space materialize. In fact, rumors of Merck’s potential $32 billion buyout of California-based Revolution Medicines were quashed too. But that doesn’t mean innovation in the cancer therapeutics field is slowing down by any means.  

Marc H. Hedrick, president & chief executive officer (CEO) of Texas-based Plus Therapeutics, thinks that radiopharmaceuticals are on the rise this year. 

Just last week, Swiss pharma giant Novartis revealed that it is setting up a 35,000-square-foot facility in Florida to focus on developing radiotherapies. These are medicines that contain small amounts of radioactive forms of elements called radioisotopes, which help diagnose as well as treat cancer. Hedrick believes that as the field evolves, targeted radiopharmaceuticals could not only curb side effects but also be more effective in killing cancer cells. 

“Targeted radiotherapeutics represent a transformative shift in how radiation is delivered. Rather than exposing large regions of the body to external radiation, these therapies deliver radiation internally and directly to tumor tissue. This approach enables higher therapeutic potency at the tumor site while substantially reducing collateral damage to surrounding healthy tissue,” said Hedrick. 

Looking ahead, he added that precise and less invasive radiotherapeutic platforms will emerge in 2026. 

“These technologies will not only optimize existing treatment paradigms but also unlock entirely new mechanisms for therapeutic delivery. Innovators in this space are poised to redefine the standard of care in oncology, improving both treatment outcomes and quality of life for patients, while advancing the broader field of precision medicine,” said Hedrick. 

Furthermore, according to Patrick Amstutz, CEO of Swiss company Molecular Partners, addressing current limitations could further revolutionize cancer treatment.

“The development of precise targeting vectors capable of selectively targeting cancer cells without harming critical organs like bone marrow or kidneys, with the flexibility to use with different payloads, is a major opportunity. In 2026, I anticipate further clinical progress with new candidates designed to meet these challenges,” said Amstutz.

For example, Molecular Partners’ Radio-DARPins are designed to target a broad spectrum of solid tumor targets and have been engineered to overcome key challenges of radioligand therapy, including reduced kidney absorption and high tumor uptake, thanks to their high affinity and specificity for novel targets, small size and optimized half-life extension.

In addition to potentially unlocking targets across cancer indications, Radio-DARPins are amenable to several isotopes. Molecular Partners developed its first Radio-DARPin with lead-212: MP0712 targeting DLL3 to treat small cell lung cancer, in collaboration with Orano Med.

“We will leverage learnings from this first program for our next Radio-DARPin programs matching vector properties, disease and target biology, and isotope profile to design candidates tailored to patient needs,” said Amstutz.

Molecular profiling and AI to expedite diagnostics and targeted drug discovery 

Meanwhile, molecular profiling in cancer care could see some changes for the better, according to David Spetzler, president of Texas-based Caris Life Sciences. Molecular profiling is a means to analyze the genetic makeup of tumors to best identify what treatments would suit patients, predict the risks of recurrence, and guide decisions on chemotherapies and immunotherapies. In breast cancer, it is crucial to identifying specific biomarkers like HER2 to match patients with the right medicines to tailor care.  

“This year is shaping up to be an especially dynamic period for molecular profiling and oncology more broadly, and Caris has a rich pipeline of new technologies, assays, and data-driven capabilities coming into clinical and translational use,” said Spetzler. “We are seeing rapid expansion in the scale and depth of real-world clinico-genomic datasets, and in parallel, significant advances in artificial intelligence that can extract increasingly subtle predictive and prognostic signals from this complexity.” 

A month ago, Caris began a collaboration with California-headquartered Genentech valued at up to $1.1 billion to identify and validate cancer drug targets in tissues of solid tumors. Spetzler believes that molecular profiling is the path towards precision medicine to address cancer, a market that was valued at $53.2 billion in 2023 and is poised to grow by 10.4% annually, according to a report by Global Market Insights. 

“These capabilities are not only improving how we match patients to existing therapies, but also how we discover new biomarkers, define novel molecular subtypes of disease, and design more efficient clinical trials,” he said.  

At the same time, he explained, progress in blood-based early detection and monitoring is accelerating, with the potential to identify cancers at much earlier, more treatable stages. And the U.K. National Health Service figures have found this to be true, as 58.7% of the 13 most common cancers were identified at stages one and two between 2023 and 2024. According to a report by the BBC, this is a 2.7% hike since before the pandemic and the highest since records began more than 10 years ago. This encompasses aggressive malignancies such as pancreatic, liver, and ovarian cancers that have historically been diagnosed late.  

Moreover, as Spetzler noted, AI seems to be shaping up drug discovery and diagnostics R&D of late. California-headquartered AI company Nvidia is now betting on Eli Lilly to establish a lab to boost drug development. This comes a few months after the two decided to build a supercomputer to build what they call an “AI factory,” to train models on experiments in pharmaceutical research. 

As U.S. tech firms are expected to triple their annual capital since 2023, investments in AI are “justified and sustainable” amid massive capital spending, according to J.P.Morgan’s Outlook 2026, and this is anticipated in the healthcare sector too. However, some suggest that healthcare professionals are cautious about adopting AI in the clinic and are not entirely sure about seeing a return on investments in AI tools, a report by Chief Healthcare Executive stated.  

Still, others are optimistic that AI will be able to tackle time-consuming challenges from administrational tasks to accelerating drug discovery, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) approval of around 1,250 AI-enabled tools is telling of this trend. 

JPM 2026: GLP-1 momentum to continue; will MASH see more candidates in the market? 

Aside from cancer care and AI, investments in metabolic disease therapeutics have seen a renaissance, and it’s no surprise that GLP-1 agonists are behind it. With the FDA’s clearance of the Wegovy pill for obesity less than a month ago, it looks like the R&D in the field will only rise. Adam Mendelsohn, CEO of Vivani Medical, a California-based company that is developing an implant designed to steadily dose people with type 2 diabetes and obesity with semaglutide – the active ingredient in Wegovy – explained that the approval of GLP-1s like Wegovy and Ozempic does not stall the development of others in the clinic. 

“The recent FDA approval of the Wegovy pill will likely be preferred by many patients due to lower costs and easier administration over injections and find success, but the development of additional products in the GLP-1 agonist field will remain very active because of the significant opportunity to address the real-world limitations associated with the currently marketed products, including the Wegovy pill,” said Mendelsohn at JPM 2026. 

Just like weekly injectables in any drug application, Mendelsohn pointed out that daily orals are associated with relatively poor adherence, especially across chronic disease treatments such as type 2 diabetes and obesity.  

“I expect that real-world case studies will continue to demonstrate the limited effectiveness of GLP-1s due to suboptimal adherence and that the blood level fluctuations resulting from poor adherence will exacerbate gastrointestinal (GI) tolerability issues that this class already experiences,” said Mendelsohn. “Less frequently administered products such as the monthly injectables in development will likely receive greater attention because these should more readily address the current adherence and tolerability issues. Efforts to further reduce the frequency of administration – that also allow for quick treatment – reversibility may receive additional attention as the needs of this field continue to evolve.” 

While the GLP-1 medication market is experiencing massive growth and high demand, some industry experts believe the related weight-management startup space is becoming oversaturated. 

“I believe that the heterogeneity of the unmet needs across different patient segments will support many players offering GLP-1 based products that best meet the needs of different patient segments, and that there is plenty of room for more players. There is already significant interest across three product types: daily orals, weekly injectables, and monthly injectables.” 

“The available market research data indicates a fragmented market in which certain patients prefer one option over the other. Even longer-acting GLP-1 based products such as quarterly injectables or bi-annual or annual implants are in development that may be appealing to certain patients based on their preferences and circumstances as well,” he said. 

Mendelsohn also added that the size of the market and the wide-ranging needs of the patients should offer plenty of room for more players to compete with pharma companies, particularly those that are leading with new administration technology. 

Building on GLP-1 approvals for other chronic metabolic conditions like metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), having proven to reverse fibrosis and inflammation in patients, emerging MASH treatments also include FGF21 analogs and even gene therapies. 

Promising advances such as a single shot delivering the FGF21 gene to patients are in the works, and so are small molecules like French company Iventiva’s lanifibranor designed to overturn fibrosis and inflammation. As only Rezdiffra and Wegovy have been authorized by the FDA to treat MASH, Inventiva’ CEO, Andrew Obenshain, thinks that this is another therapeutic field that will see progress in 2026. 

“The MASH therapeutic landscape will continue to evolve rapidly, with limited approved treatment options today and clinical readout from our oral agent in development expected in the second half of 2026. Progress in the field will depend on improved patient identification and diagnosis, updated clinical guidance, and greater strategic collaboration, as combination approaches are increasingly viewed as necessary to address the complexity of metabolic and hepatic disease,” said Obenshain. 

Rare disease research: JPM 2026 attendees highlight need for regulatory overhaul

Finally, on the rare diseases front, more than 25 orphan drugs – medicines developed for rare diseases – are on the FDA’s roster to be approved in 2026, however, Craig Martin, CEO and founder of Orphan Therapeutics Accelerator, believes that there needs to be a “fundamental rethink” of the R&D to commercialization continuum in rare disease, especially for advanced therapies targeting ultra-rare conditions. 

He deems AI-based modeling to be used as a tool to replace testing and improve the review process. He also foresees more platform and plausible mechanism approaches this year, and more fit-for-purpose approach to chemistry, manufacturing, and control (CMC) standards.  

“These, combined, will make a huge difference in the number of therapies we can get to patients, and in the cost of development and ultimate pricing of those treatments,” said Martin. 

2026 will bear witness to more rare disease treatments in the market, “especially if FDA holds true to what we’re hearing from leadership,” according to Martin, still, barriers remain. 

“The challenge will be FDA’s capacity and lack of continuity at the leadership and program level, and to what degree that may impact the process and timeline for expedited review of products. If the priority review vouchers (PRV) program is reinstated, that will also make a big difference, as there are programs with biologics license applications (BLAs) currently under review where sponsors are on the fence as to whether and how they can commercialize them if approved. This is also having an impact further upstream on programs that have promising results in phase 1/2, but sponsors can’t commit to make the investment to complete development without assurance that a PRV will be available if approved to offset the costs of a registrational study and submission,” said Martin. 

As R&D is expected to expand on most therapeutic fronts, experts believe that this year is one that will see growth both in innovation and investment.