Against the backdrop of a San Diego Padres game at Petco Park during the BIO International Convention 2026, about 75 senior leaders from pharma, biotech and investment gathered at The Skybox at DiamondView Tower in June 23 for a reception hosted by Pitt Health Sciences.
Leading off, Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean, School of Medicine, at the University of Pittsburgh, described the evolution of the Pittsburgh life sciences ecosystem and painted a picture of a future revolving around a true discovery to impact approach, especially in biomanufacturing and rare diseases.
He noted that the University of Pittsburgh is one of the top universities in the world, in terms of health sciences and biomedical discovery, with the unique advantage of working in tandem with UPMC, one of the largest integrated medical centers in the country.
“All of this put together presents an incredible opportunity to develop new medicines and test them first in patients right there in Pittsburgh,” Shekhar said. “This is an exciting new direction for the city, for new investors and new companies.”
The BIO event, the world’s largest gathering for the biotechnology and life sciences industry, is important because it is the main way that universities get their technology into the hands of partners that can take them to products and benefit society, said Evan Facher, vice chancellor for innovation and entrepreneurship, University of Pittsburgh, and associate dean for commercial translation in the School of Medicine.
“Compared with other regions, we provide more intellectual property to the community than almost any other university in the United States,” Facher said. “We're top ranked on all metrics related to the number of patents, the number of deals that we do with pharmaceutical companies. The ability for Pittsburgh to change the world through health care exists, and every single day we come into the office, we see the opportunity to make that happen.”
Building Infrastructure That Doesn't Wait
Pitt’s response to funding pressure isn’t to wait it out. It’s to build the infrastructure that makes discovery move faster, regardless of the funding environment.
That means a tiered commercialization support lineup, from early hypothesis validation to commercial derisking, producing partner-ready assets that industry can take across home plate. The results are showing up. In 2025, Pitt rose to #17 among U.S. universities in patents, up three spots, with 107 patents issued, while spinning out 15 startup companies.
Joining Shekhar during the event were two panelists: Michael Langer, cofounding managing partner of T.Rx Capital, who has spent years on the investor side of early-stage university-sourced deals, and Debbie Lin, venture partner at T.Rx Capital and VP of Strategic Partnerships at Caris Life Sciences, who ran digital health investments for Boehringer Ingelheim's venture fund and spent years in corporate development deciding what to partner on.
One thread that ran through the evening: the specific and growing value of what academic medical centers hold that no AI company can manufacture.
Pitt, backed by the scale of UPMC, has deep historical biobanks, providing breadth across conditions combined with real depth in specific disease areas.
“What I’m really excited about is seeing the combination of universities, the health care systems, and the economic development organizations working together to make Pittsburgh a birthplace for new biotechnology,” Facher said.
Media contact: HSNEWS@pitt.edu