Panel Discussion & Audience Discussion: Moving Beyond Bleomycin to Building a Robust Preclinical Evaluation Framework for Pulmonary Fibrosis Drug Development

3:00 pm - Wednesday 30th September 2026

For decades, the bleomycin model has served as the primary tool for evaluating antifibrotic candidates in pulmonary fibrosis research. Yet as the field has matured, it has become increasingly clear that reliance on a single preclinical model is insufficient to capture the biological complexity, chronic progression, and therapeutic responses observed in human disease.

Key Discussion Points:

  • The strengths and limitations of traditional models, including bleomycin, and how they fit within a broader preclinical evaluation strategy
  • How emerging platforms such as human lung tissue models, organoids, and PCLS are being used to complement in vivo studies and improve translational relevance
  • Detecting safety signals and drug–drug interactions early in development to better inform clinical trial design and regulatory discussions

Speakers:

Chief Scientific Officer
Mediar Therapeutics
Sr. Scientist
Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Director, Head of Portfolio Strategy & Discovery Biology DAx
Novartis AG
Director - Translational Data Science
Alentis Therapeutics AG