What to Watch at LogiPharma: Resilience, Practical AI and New Peer Formats

LogiPharma USA 2026 opens Monday, Oct. 5, at the Sheraton Boston. It runs through Oct. 7 and brings together pharma supply chain leaders at a time of geopolitical uncertainty, regulatory change, cost pressure and rising therapy complexity. This year's program spans strategy, planning, quality, compliance, digital tools, AI and cold chain, with resilience as the thread running through nearly every session.

Ahead of the event, Pharmaceutical Commerce spoke to Charleen Ring, executive director of programming for LogiPharma and LogiMed US, and Christopher Van Norman, senior vice president of distribution operations at McKesson. Ring walks through what's new on the agenda, from a more practical conversation around AI to interactive formats like master classes, roundtables and Picture Problem, a new peer benchmarking session. Van Norman, who makes his LogiPharma debut, previews his day two keynote fireside chat, "Racing to Meet the Moment: Supply Chains Built for Today's Therapies." He'll be joined by McKesson colleague Nicole Wade and a manufacturer voice from Marcelo Couto from Bristol Myers Squibb to discuss how supply chains can keep pace with increasingly complex, targeted and time-sensitive therapies.

Pharmaceutical Commerce will be on site in Boston throughout LogiPharma USA 2026. Look for our coverage of the sessions and conversations shaping the pharmaceutical supply chain.

PC: What's new this year compared with past editions?

Ring: One of the biggest differences this year is really the breadth of the agenda and how much the conversations have matured. We've expanded the program to look at the end-to-end supply chain from a lot of different angles. There's strategy, planning, quality, compliance, digital, AI, cold chain and also the challenges that are particularly important for biotech and smaller companies. AI is obviously a much bigger part of the conversation this year, but what I think is interesting is that we've moved beyond just asking how can we use AI, and the conversations are becoming more practical. So, where is it actually driving value? What data and infrastructure needs to be in place? How do you govern it? How do you scale it successfully with use cases across an organization? We put a lot of emphasis around that and making the agenda much more interactive, so it's not just three days of sitting in a ballroom listening to presentations. We have masterclasses, workshops, small group discussions, really where peer-to-peer formats are the place where you can get into those challenges that you're dealing with. So I'd say it sort of fits the scale and what we're doing with the agenda. That's the biggest difference this year.

Resilience seems to run through nearly everything on the agenda. What challenges are this year's sessions built around?

Ring: Resilience is probably the biggest thread running through the program. Obviously, there's no shortage of disruption. We've got geopolitical uncertainty, regulatory change, cost pressures and capacity constraints. Companies are constantly thinking about how they prepare for what they can't predict. I think what's interesting this year is that resilience isn't only about responding to a crisis anymore. It's about building better visibility planning capabilities and partnerships so you can see things earlier and make better decisions before something becomes a crisis.

As I mentioned, AI and digital transformation are always huge, as is planning. We have major conversations around those pieces, quality and compliance, cold chain, transportation and warehousing risk. All of those kind of weave together.

Another big theme is collaboration across the ecosystem. That's something we'll touch on in the fireside chat with Chris. He'll speak more to in a bit, but you see it throughout the entire agenda. There's manufacturers, distributors, logistics partners and technology providers figuring out how they can work together more effectively as the supply chain becomes more interconnected.

Who typically attends LogiPharma, and how does that shape the discussion?

Ring: That's one of my favorite things about LogiPharma, because we really do bring together the entire point-to-end pharma supply chain. You have people who are leading global supply chain, U.S. supply chain logistics planning, distribution and transportation. We have everyone from an SVP down to a manager of transportation, and you have everyone from the largest global pharmaceutical companies to smaller pharma organizations. Boston is a big hub for biotech, so we get a lot of companies that are starting out and are just looking how to build out their supply chain for the first time. I think there's a really interesting dynamic there between all of our attendees and how they can learn from each other. Then, of course, we've got distributors and partners that support our attendees as well, so it's really a good group, and it creates an interesting level of conversation because people are coming at the same challenges from completely different vantage points.

As the program director, that's what I'm always looking forward to when I'm putting a session together. I don't necessarily want three people who are going to give me the same answer, and I think that's reflective of our entire audience as well. It’s just bringing together different parts of the ecosystem represented across the supply chain because that's where you start getting much more interesting conversations going.

Which sessions are worth prioritizing this year?

Ring: Our opening panel on day one is a really good example of what's going to set the tone for the three days. We're talking about building resilient supply chains at scale, preparing for disruption, uncertainty and what's next. That's really weaving into that whole resilience piece. We have the head of supply chain management at Sun Pharma, J&J, Accord Healthcare and Freehand, all joining us for that session. And of course, we have to mention our day two keynote fireside chat that's going to be “Racing to Meet the Moment: Supply Chains Built for Today's Therapies.”

One of the reasons I'm genuinely excited about that session is the combination of perspectives. We have Chris, Nicole Wade from McKesson and Marcelo Couto from BMS. Rather than talking about supply chain from more an organization's perspective, we're really going to explore what happens at the points of connection between the organizations. And I know Chris will speak much more to why that particular conversation is so timely.

We do have some really interesting AI programming as well. Those conversations have become much more practical. We're getting into those applications and we have an entire track on day two that's dedicated to AI and supply chain. We have a couple of panels in there that will be talking about data governance, moving beyond pilots, and we have a some use cases that I'm really excited about as well in our general session. We have Sanofi, who's going to be talking about their supply chain AI programs and AstraZeneca as well. Those are some of the things that I'm really looking forward to.

How does the agenda balance big-picture industry conversations with more tactical sessions?

Ring: That’s something we're very intentional about when we build the agenda. The general sessions are where you can ask the bigger industry questions: What does resilience look like? How is the industry changing? What capabilities are we going to need three or five years from now? And then once we break into the tracks, the masterclasses, the workshops, we can get much more tactical. You might hear a big picture conversation in the morning around visibility or AI. Then later, you're sitting in a smaller room talking about cold chain or AI within cold chain, data gaps, planning processes or implementation. You know, more on the quality and compliance pieces.

Those are the opportunities where you can zoom in a bit more. And I think you need both, right? People want to understand where the industry is headed, but they also want to go home with something useful. My goal is building the program where attendees leave with ideas they can actually bring to their teams. They're not just sitting there staring at PowerPoints. They're having conversations and really taking home those little nuggets that they can bring back with them on Monday.

Chris, this is your first LogiPharma. What are you most looking forward to?

Van Norman: I'm excited to connect with people across the industry and hear how others are thinking through what's changed in our supply chain. I'm also looking forward to kicking off day two of LogiPharma with a keynote fireside chat. Charleen will be moderating, and as she mentioned, I'll be joined by Nicole Wade, who's a colleague of mine from McKesson, who will bring a generics distribution perspective, and also Marcelo Couto from Bristol Myers Squibb, who will bring the manufacturer view, so connecting both those perspectives along with the supply chain perspective. It's going to be a great session.

What will your fireside chat cover, and why is the topic timely?

Van Norman: At a high level, we'll focus on how supply chains can keep pace with the therapies being developed today. Our products are important. The stakes are high, and it's an ever-changing environment, but it's also a great time. There's a lot of exciting innovation happening in healthcare. However, many therapies are becoming much more complex. They're targeted and time sensitive, and that creates an opportunity to strengthen the basics in reliability. Quality coordination and strong execution — we'll talk about that, but also talk about how better visibility, data automation and other AI-related things can help teams plan earlier, work more efficiently and support customers in more practical ways. It feels timely because the industry is not just managing the complexity; we're also finding new ways to collaborate, adapt and improve how these therapies reach the patients that need them.

What do you hope attendees take away from your session?

Van Norman: I hope people leave with a clear sense that reliability starts with connection and collaboration. No one part of the supply chain can solve these challenges alone. And when the right signals are seen and move earlier, teams can plan better and respond with more confidence across the entire supply chain. Technology is a big helper of that, but trust, transparency, and coordination across all partners throughout the supply chain is just as important. At the end of the day, the goal is to support our customers and help patients get the therapies that they need.