Medidata Kicks Off NEXT Shanghai 2026: Empowering China Biopharma to Scale Globally Through “AI for Impact”
Medidata, a Dassault Systèmes brand and leading provider of clinical trial solutions to the life sciences industry, today kicks off its premier annual event, the 15th Medidata NEXT Shanghai. Centered on the theme "AI for Impact", the event brought together industry experts and enterprise decision-makers to explore emerging AI trends and scalable deployment in clinical development. As China biopharma looks to scale globally, the event highlights how Medidata delivers measurable value through experience-based AI across the entire trial lifecycle, driving smarter, safer clinical trials, and helping its customers to bring life-saving therapies to patients faster.
Building on its Study, Patient, and Data Experiences - and leveraging decades of expertise alongside one of the largest clinical datasets from over 38,000 research studies involving more than 12 million patients - this presentation continues momentum at NEXT events across the globe including in New York, Paris, Madrid, Basel, London, San Francisco, Milan, Seoul and Tokyo.
"At this year’s NEXT Shanghai, we are demonstrating how Medidata leverages over a decade of AI expertise to advance clinical AI into a practical, scalable reality," said Jennifer (Wei) Li, General Manager of Medidata Greater China. "Embedded into our unified, end-to-end platform, we have built a cohesive AI-native foundation layer that drives quality and efficiency throughout the trial lifecycle. This will empower innovators in China to achieve local breakthroughs and scale global R&D, ultimately benefiting patients worldwide."
Taking the main stage to outline this strategic vision, Medidata CEO Anthony Costello; Chief Operating and Strategy Officer Lisa Moneymaker; General Manager, Head of Data Experience Wayne Walker; and SVP Operations & Transformation, Jeff Ventimiglia, together deliver the joint keynote, detailing how the AI companion, Dot, is mastering the optimization of an intelligent clinical trial workflow through the Study, Patient, and Data Experiences. This transforms the generation, connection, and application of clinical evidence, unlocking a smarter, faster, and more patient-centered future.
The morning keynote agenda also features Nik Morton, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer at Worldwide Clinical Trials; Dingding Liu, Associate Director, Management Committee of Daxing Airport Economic Zone (Daxing), as well as industry leaders like Xin Wang, M.D., Vice President of the Cancer Hospital at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and President of its Langfang Branch; and Dr. Zhongmin Wang, Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Akeso.
Transitioning from macro trends to operational realities, the afternoon agenda offers three specialized tracks: "The New Paradigm of Data Management in the AI Era", "Empowering Sites: Pragmatic and Flexible Intelligent Clinical Trials", and "Clinical Operations Excellence and Risk Management in the AI-Driven Era", during which Medidata showcased its newly launched Medidata Plus, and underscored how Medidata’s roadmap to end-to-end AI-enabled platform strategy for leveraging purpose-built AI and an interoperable AI ecosystem to de-risk study design, adopt outcome-based commercial models, and expedite study builds. The event also included an innovation theater and hands-on sessions, giving attendees an immersive look at how these cutting-edge solutions operate to streamline clinical workflows.
About NEXT Shanghai
As Medidata’s flagship annual event, the NEXT City series is a premier platform for addressing industry challenges and driving digital transformation. A key stop on this global tour, NEXT Shanghai 2026 brings together more than 600 life sciences leaders to examine how applied AI is actively transforming clinical research. Sessions are designed to explore ways to empower both local innovation and global expansion within the Chinese market—delivering the precision and efficiency required to bring new therapies to patients faster. The event includes nearly 30 keynotes, breakouts, and interactive panels featuring executives from leading biopharma companies and CRO partners.