After a long winter, the Advanced Therapies Congress 2026 in March arrived with the first real promise of spring. Clear skies and unseasonably warm sunshine greeted attendees on day one — and, unusually for London, stayed put through day two — setting an upbeat tone for a meeting focused on momentum, scale, and maturity in cell and gene therapy.
More than 3,300 global executives gathered at ExCeL London to hear from 300 speakers, meet 100 start-ups, and take part in ten content tracks spanning the full advanced therapy medicinal product (ATMP) value chain. The exhibition floor was busy throughout, with discussions ranging from viral vector capacity and automation to reimbursement frameworks and real-world evidence — reflecting an industry increasingly concerned with execution, not just innovation.
London proved a fitting backdrop. As part of the UK’s life sciences “Golden Triangle” with Oxford and Cambridge, the capital sits at the heart of a national ecosystem comprising 6,300 life sciences businesses, £80.7 billion in turnover, and more than 256,000 employees. The UK is home to over 130 advanced therapies companies, many clustered in the greater southeast, including university spinouts such as Orchard Therapeutics, Autolus, and MeiraGTx. This concentration is reinforced by deep integration between academia, industry, and the NHS, with multiple National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centres and Academic Health Science Centres accelerating translational medicine.
During the congress, DDN spoke with leaders across the ecosystem, including Lara Campana at Resolution Therapeutics, Ruxi Comisel from eXmoor, Claudio Panzarella and Angelo Raggioli from ReiThera, Natalia Elizalde from VIVEbiotech, and Miguel Forte from Kiji Therapeutics, capturing a shared sentiment. Advanced therapies are entering a decisive phase, where scientific ambition must be matched by robust manufacturing, regulatory clarity, and sustainable access models. In London, against a backdrop of spring sunshine and dynamic conversation, the industry’s trajectory was on full display — moving from promise to tangible progress.
