Explore the Agenda
Pre-Conference Day
Tuesday, November 3
Day One
Wednesday, November 4
Day Two
Thursday, November 5
8:00 am Check-in & Light Breakfast
Workshop A
9:00 am Hidradenitis Suppurativa: Driving Earlier Intervention & Unlocking Disease Modification in HS to Improve Long-Term Outcomes
Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) remains one of the most challenging inflammatory skin diseases to diagnose, treat, and manage long term. While therapeutic innovation in dermatology continues to accelerate, HS still faces significant unmet need, including delayed diagnosis, irreversible tissue damage, limited biomarkers, and comparatively slow translational progress. This workshop
will explore how earlier intervention strategies and emerging therapeutic approaches could shift HS management beyond reactive symptom control toward improving long-term outcomes and potentially modifying disease progression.
Attendees will gain insight into the evolving HS treatment landscape, the scientific and clinical barriers slowing progress, and what is needed to strengthen translational development in this underserved area of inflammatory disease.
Key Questions to be Addressed:
- How can earlier intervention influence long-term disease progression and tissue damage in HS?
- What evidence is needed to support earlier use of advanced therapies in HS care pathways?
- Why has HS seen comparatively limited preclinical and translational advancement compared with other inflammatory diseases?
- What lessons can HS learn from earlier biologic intervention strategies used in psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and other chronic inflammatory conditions?
- How can the field move beyond symptom management toward disease modification and improved quality of life for patients living with HS?
12:00 pm Lunch & Networking Break
Workshop B
1:00 pm Rare & Ultra-Rare Inflammatory Skin Disease: Exploring Under-Researched Populations to Address High Unmet Need & Unlock Scalable Innovation
Despite rapid expansion across mainstream inflammatory indications, many rare and under-researched cutaneous disorders continue to face limited therapeutic innovation, poor translational models, delayed diagnosis and minimal investment attention. This workshop will explore development opportunities across indications including alopecia areata, androgenetic alopecia, severe acne subtypes, pigmentary disorders such as melasma and vitiligo, dermal drug reactions and other niche inflammatory and fibrotic conditions where unmet need remains high despite significant patient burden.
Attendees will discuss how developers can prioritise underserved indications, generate meaningful translational evidence in small patient populations, and build scalable strategies that translate rare disease insights into broader platform and pipeline opportunities.
Key Objectives:
- Why are rare and under-researched cutaneous indications becoming increasingly attractive for developers and investors?
- How can companies overcome challenges in diagnosis, patient stratification and patient identification across heterogeneous and underserved populations?
- What translational, biomarker and clinical evidence is required to demonstrate value in smaller populations with limited historical research?
- How can success in niche indications such as Lichen Sclerosus, Vitiligo, Pemphigoid Nodularis, Prurigo Nodularis, Pyoderma gangrenosum or Generalized Pustular Psoriasis inform broader therapeutic development across chronic inflammatory and regenerative disease?
- What are the key scientific, operational and commercial risks when developing therapies in smaller and historically overlooked patient populations?