Making Access Happen – Sandoz Global Access Forum 2026
Prachee Bhosle
The Global Access Forum by Making Access Happen, organised by Sandoz, took place in Munich from 17th to 19th June 2026. The forum was a highly enriching experience, bringing together patient organisations and advocacy representatives from across the globe for three days of learning, dialogue, and collaboration.
The event was co-chaired by Antonella Cardone, CEO, Cancer Patients Europe, and Laura Wingate, Chief Education, Support and Advocacy Officer, Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, USA, along with a wide range of patient advocates, experts, and industry representatives.
Across the sessions, a strong and consistent theme emerged around improving access to medicines, with particular emphasis on the intersection of patients and patents, and how intellectual property frameworks influence biosimilar availability, affordability, and patient access to treatment.
Key sessions explored the generics and biosimilars landscape, antibiotic resistance and supply chain resilience, and a dedicated discussion on moving from patent barriers to patient action. The panel featuring Julia Pike, Cheryl Koehn, Deirdre Mackechnie, and Laura Wingate provided valuable insights into advocacy approaches, collaboration, and strengthening patient voices in policy discussions.
A significant component of the forum was the breakout workshop sessions. The North America and Asia Pacific group, which also includes regions where ASIF member organisations are active, worked through structured exercises to prioritise regional challenges. This included ranking key areas such as biosimilar adoption and policy, patent reform, and supply chain resilience, including antibiotics.
Through this process, clear priorities were identified across regions, with biosimilar adoption and policy emerging as the top priority, followed by patent reform, and then supply chain resilience. It was also recognised that while supply chain challenges are important, they are often less directly actionable from a patient advocacy standpoint compared to policy and access-related issues.
The discussions reinforced the central importance of the “patients and patents” theme across all areas, highlighting the need for coordinated global patient advocacy to address systemic barriers to treatment access.
The Sandoz Biosimilars Development Center laboratory visit was another key highlight. It provided a valuable opportunity to observe first-hand the rigorous scientific processes, strict regulatory protocols, and advanced state-of-the-art equipment involved in biosimilars development, offering deeper insight into the complexity and precision required to bring these therapies to patients.
Overall, the forum served as an important platform for learning, networking, and collaboration. It also enabled meaningful engagement with patient organisation representatives and industry leaders, including the Chief Medical Officer of Sandoz, Shaloo Pandhi, who extended support for future collaboration opportunities.
The discussions and connections made during the forum are expected to support further work in strengthening patient advocacy efforts globally, particularly in advancing access to medicines, addressing patent-related barriers, and promoting biosimilar awareness.
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