The Aging Research and Drug Discovery Meeting, or ARDD 2026, is scheduled to bring pharmaceutical executives, biotechnology researchers, regulators, investors and academic scientists to Harvard University’s David Rubenstein Treehouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from October 1 to 3, 2026. Organized by Insilico Medicine, the 13th meeting is planned as a forum for discussions about aging biology, clinical development, artificial intelligence, pharmaceutical research and development, regulation, investment and the translation of longevity science into medicines. The announcement describes a prospective conference program rather than new experimental results or clinical findings.
Senior representatives from international pharmaceutical companies are listed among the participants, including leaders from Novartis, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Takeda, Menarini, GSK, AstraZeneca and Novo Nordisk. The program also names speakers from Astellas, Daiichi Sankyo, Genentech and other pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations. Academic and research participants are to come from Harvard, the Cleveland Clinic, Stanford University, MIT, the Whitehead Institute, MBZUAI and other institutions. The agenda also includes representatives from government, technology and investment, reflecting the meeting’s stated focus on connecting biological discovery with drug development, regulation and financing.
One newly announced feature is a pharmaceutical chief executive panel moderated by Alice Park, a senior health correspondent at TIME. The scheduled participants are Christophe Weber, former CEO of Takeda; Elcin Barker Ergun, CEO of Menarini; Fiona Marshall, president of biomedical research at Novartis; and Ariel Feldstein, chief scientific officer for internal medicine at Pfizer. The announcement places senior pharmaceutical leadership within the meeting’s wider discussion of how longevity research can progress from discovery toward clinical evaluation and patient access. It does not provide findings from the panel, which remains scheduled for the October meeting.
A regulatory session will be moderated by Andrew Brack, program manager for proactive health at the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H. Titled “Matching Clinical Trials of Therapeutics & Regulatory Mandates,” it is scheduled to feature Jeffrey Siegel, director of the FDA’s Office of Drug Evaluation Sciences; Justin Penzenstadler, acting associate director of OCHEN/OND/CDER; and Lowell M. Zeta, acting chief of staff in the FDA Office of the Commissioner. The session concerns the relationship between clinical trials for therapeutics and regulatory mandates. No specific regulatory decision, policy change or approval is announced ahead of the meeting.
ARDD 2026 will also host an XPRIZE Healthspan workshop involving 11 finalist teams that are preparing to advance aging interventions toward Phase 2 clinical trials. The finalists’ work covers multimodal and clinical programs as well as drugs and biologics. The announcement identifies the teams as finalists in the XPRIZE Healthspan effort; it does not say that they have completed Phase 2 trials or that their interventions have demonstrated therapeutic efficacy. The workshop is intended to introduce the finalist teams and their approaches within the program.
A full-day AI in Drug Discovery Forum is scheduled to examine target discovery, computational drug design, multimodal models, autonomous scientific systems and the application of artificial intelligence to longevity research. Speakers are listed from Takeda, Insilico Medicine, Novo Nordisk, Harvard, the Cleveland Clinic and other organizations. The program brings together speakers whose work spans artificial intelligence, pharmaceutical research and academic science, but the event announcement reports no performance comparison, approved longevity treatment or new clinical result arising from their methods.
Parallel sessions will focus on pet and animal longevity and on virtual cells in time. The pet and animal longevity forum is intended to consider companion animals as translational models of aging, biomarkers for veterinary trials of interventions intended to promote healthy aging, nutrition, chronic disease and the emerging commercial landscape for pet longevity. The virtual-cell session is scheduled to bring together researchers from Harvard Medical School, MIT and the Whitehead Institute, Stanford University, MBZUAI and other institutions to discuss models designed to capture cellular states, biological change and aging over time. These sessions concern proposed uses of models and biomarkers; the announcement does not establish human clinical benefits from an animal-based strategy or a virtual cell model.
The scientific program is due to begin on October 1 with remarks from George Daley, dean of Harvard Medical School, followed by sessions on healthspan trials, regulatory pathways, clinical practice and the role of major industries in extending healthy longevity. Featured discussions are scheduled to address how aging therapeutics can move from evidence generation to clinical trials and, ultimately, patient access. The framing emphasizes a progression through the development pathway, but the conference announcement supplies no new evidence about the effectiveness or safety of a particular intervention. Clinical translation and access are identified as subjects for discussion among researchers, regulators, health professionals and industry representatives.
On October 2, Marshall is scheduled to open the scientific program with “Reimagining Drug Discovery Through the Lens of Aging Biology.” Additional sessions are planned on pharmaceutical research and development productivity, licensing and partnering, disease-based pathways to longevity therapeutics, and investment across the biotechnology lifecycle. The October 3 program is to turn to emerging longevity mechanisms and therapeutic strategies, with presentations from David Sinclair, Vadim Gladyshev, George Church, Tony Wyss-Coray, Vishwa Deep Dixit, Steve Horvath and other researchers in aging biology and translational medicine. The agenda therefore moves from organizational and development questions toward biological mechanisms while retaining the meeting’s stated emphasis on research, medicines and clinical translation.
Investor participation is also planned for discussions about financing and commercialization. The announcement names Deerfield, OrbiMed, Oaktree Capital Management, Danaher Ventures, UBS and Qiming Venture Partners among the firms represented. Their sessions are expected to cover the financing and commercialization of longevity biotechnology alongside scientific and regulatory topics. Organizer and co-chair Alex Zhavoronkov said the meeting brings together scientists investigating aging mechanisms, pharmaceutical leaders positioned to translate discoveries into medicines, and the regulators and investors needed to move the field forward. That statement describes the meeting’s stated purpose; it is not evidence that a clinically validated longevity therapy has emerged from academic research.
ARDD 2026 is scheduled to run for three days at the David Rubenstein Treehouse at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, with registration and the full program available through agingpharma.org. Members of the press may contact the organizers to attend, interview speakers or request information, and the announcement says a limited number of press passes are available. Insilico Medicine is the meeting’s organizer, and the McKinsey Health Institute is identified as its sole knowledge partner. The broad agenda maps questions and participants across aging research, AI, regulation, investment and commercialization; evidence about particular interventions, methods or clinical programs will depend on what is presented at the meeting and reported afterward.
Subject of Research: An October 2026 conference program on aging biology, longevity drug development, clinical trials, artificial intelligence and regulation.
Article Title: ARDD 2026 brings global pharma, FDA leaders and longevity science pioneers to Harvard October 1–3
Article References: ARDD 2026 brings global pharma, FDA leaders and longevity science pioneers to Harvard October 1–3. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: Not provided
Keywords: aging research, longevity biotechnology, drug discovery, clinical trials, artificial intelligence, healthspan, FDA regulation, biotechnology investment, Harvard University, ARDD 2026, ARDD, brings
News Source: Beatrice Stafford. (October 26, 2026). ARDD 2026 to Unite Longevity Science, Pharma and Regulation at Harvard. Scienmag.
