Join MassBio for the 2026 Patient Advocacy Summit on Thursday, November 12, in the MassBioHub. This event showcases the work patient advocates do every day to ensure that patients are front and center in the drug development cycle and beyond.
New this year: The Patient Advocacy Summit is complimentary for all MassBio members.
This year’s focus: The full patient journey, from early awareness and diagnosis to treatment, transplantation, and life beyond. The program is told through the stories of patient advocates, healthcare leaders, and people directly affected by disease.
The keynote: Michelle Werner, Executive Vice President and President of North America at Ipsen, will share how her experiences as a mother, caregiver, and patient advocate have shaped her leadership.
- She joined Ipsen in March 2026 from Flagship Pioneering, and serves on the boards of Rare Disease Renegades and Cure Rare Disease. She will discuss how listening fosters empathy and guides decisions that lead to better innovation for patients and families.
Kidney health and transplantation: MassBio’s Ed Coppinger, who received a kidney transplant in 2015, moderates a conversation about kidney health, from awareness and education through transplant and recovery.
- He will be joined by Jennifer Matthews, Executive Director of the National Kidney Foundation serving New England, whose mother’s dialysis and transplant shaped her approach to advocacy, and Margrette Mondillo, Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer of the Light Foundation, who received a living-donor kidney transplant in 2024 after nearly two years on dialysis.
The power of early diagnosis: In this year’s Possible Talk, patient advocate Kate Robinson shares how her son’s diagnosis with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) at age five uncovered the condition across her family.
- A Family Heart Foundation and Boston Children’s Hospital advocate, she will speak to the realities of living with FH and why early detection and intervention matter for a lifelong condition.
Join the conversation: Share your patient advocacy story and tag @MassBio with #PatientDriven and #PatientAdvocacySummit26 for a chance to be featured on our channels.
Sponsorship: Interested in sponsoring this event? Contact our sponsorship team.
- Our sustaining sponsors: Lilly, Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Vertex.
- Our supporting sponsors: Genentech, Ipsen, Novartis, UCB, and Ultragenyx.
