Utah’s Life Sciences Summit Returns Wednesday, Courtesy of BioUtah

As BioUtah's Kelvyn Cullimore says, "Utah continues to gain national recognition as a biotech hub and remains one of the fastest-growing (such) hubs in the nation."

12 November 2025 — Salt Lake City— More than 550 attendees are slated to pack the Hilton Salt Lake City Center this Wednesday for the 2025 Utah Life Sciences Summit.

This is BioUtah’s flagship annual event, and it showcases 1 of the 2 most advanced and fastest-growing economic sectors in the state.

As such, if you want to stay on top of the latest and greatest insights/information from the medical, healthcare, biotech, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and/or med-tech worlds, you should be there.

Utah’s $22 Billion Industry Takes Center Stage

Hosted by BioUtah, the state’s life sciences trade association, the Summit has become a one-day barometer for the health and direction of a $22.6 billion industry supporting nearly 180,000 Utah jobs.

The event draws everyone from academic researchers and startup founders to global pharmaceutical industry leaders and policymakers.

“Utah’s life-sciences community continues to deliver transformative healthcare solutions to patients in Utah and the world over,” said Kelvyn Cullimore, Jr., BioUtah President and CEO, in announcing the event’s award recipients. “This summit is where innovation, capital, and collaboration intersect.”

This year’s program opens with a a welcoming presentation from Jefferson Moss, Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, as he will frame life sciences as a targeted industry for Utah’s future.

A Heavy-Hitting Lineup

Following the welcoming remarks Moss and the presentation of BioUtah's Chairman’s Report, attendees will hear from such industry notables as:

🔹 Carter Dredge, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Intermountain Health Institute, on who will speak AI and Structural Impacts in Healthcare — a forward-looking session on how artificial intelligence is reshaping clinical delivery and system design;
🔹 Melissa Holyoak, Trade Commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, will speak on Trade Regulations Affecting Life Sciences;
🔹 Mark Ott, M.D., Dean of the new BYU School of Medicine will join Bob Carter, M.D., Ph.D. (CEO of University of Utah Health) and David Bearss, Ph.D. (CEO of Halia Therapeutics) for a candid discussion on Navigating Costs, Care, and the Coming Silver Tsunami; and
🔹 Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President at Eli Lilly and former Center Director for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, will deliver a presentation on The Miracle of Modern Medicine, a perspective from the front lines of molecule discovery and pandemic-era biopharma.

Taken in concert, these and the other morning sessions read like a national conference condensed into an Utah-centric day.

Honoring the People Behind the Progress

A highlight of the morning will be the presentation of BioUtah’s 2025 Life Sciences Awards, which will recognize five individuals and organizations whose impact spans decades.

These include

• Dr. Wes Sundquist, Samuels Professor and Co-Chair of the Department of Biochemistry at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah, who is receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award for research that led directly to the FDA issuing marketing clearance to Lenacapavir, a breakthrough HIV prevention drug that was cleared in December 2022.
• Fred Lampropoulos, Executive Chairman, Founder and former CEO of Merit Medical, who is receiving the Executive of the Year Award for his nearly four decades of leadership and a global revenue base at Merit Medical that now tops $1.5 billion annually.
• Shawn Fojtik, CEO of Distal Access, who is receiving the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, for receiving 100+ medical device patents and building multiple Utah startups.
• Nusano is receiving the Innovation Impact Award for advancing radioisotope therapies and positioning Utah as a magnet for radiopharma talent and capital.
• Taylor Randall, Ph.D., President of the University of Utah, who is receiving the Friend of Industry Award for expanding academic-industry partnerships and creating a pipeline of high-skill life-science talent.

Cullimore and Mark Paul (Chairman of BioUtah and Executive Director of the Center for Medical Innovation at University of Utah Health) will present the awards at midday before the event transitions into four simultaneous afternoon tracks.

The Afternoon: Deep Dives and Deal Flow

After a networking lunch, attendees will split into four specialized tracks:

🔹 The Regulatory & Quality track will examine how AI and new frameworks from the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services are changing device approval and clinical trial design.

🔹 The BioUtah Track will map Utah’s life-sciences developments, with conversations with Colliers International’s Chris Kirk and Point of the Mountain’s Mike Ambre, plus insights on social-media strategy for companies and a presentation from visiting Korean digital-health firms.

🔹 The Workforce track will consider how Utah’s talent pipeline is evolving, and will include panels from Talent Ready Utah, GE Healthcare, and Upward Growth Partners on upskilling and immigration policy.

🔹 And the Entrepreneurial & Legal track will highlight startup founders such as Curtis Anderson, CEO of Nursa, and partners from Mayer Brown to share “tips from the trenches” on funding and IP issues.

Near the end of the Summit, a Signing Ceremony will be held between BioUtah executives and the representatives of the Korea Health Industry Development Institute.

The purpose of the KHIDI visit is to formalize a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two organizations in an effort to foster cross-border collaboration in smart hospitals, medical AI, and regulatory pathways.

Why the Life Sciences Summit Matters

According to BioUtah's Cullimore, the Summit is more than a conference. It’s Utah’s annual mirror and reflects how far the state’s life-sciences industry has come and where it must go next.

Utah now exports medical devices, diagnostic technologies, and biotech innovations to every continent.

But doing so while growing as an ecosystem requires synchronized effort across academia, capital, and government, which (in my opinion) is precisely the intersection BioUtah cultivates each November.

Clearly, the stakes are critical in today's globally flattened and AI-empowered environment, from workforce development to increasing competitiveness, and from FDA alignment to investment attraction.

For startups, it’s about visibility; for investors, deal flow; for policymakers, insight.

To me, the bottom line is this: 

Utah’s life-sciences ecosystem isn’t just growing, it’s converging.

In fact, I believe the collaborations that will be showcased during tomorrow's confab highlight a sector behaving less like a cluster of companies and more like an engine of statewide innovation.

If You’re on the Fence

There’s still time to register for the Summit, but barely, as last-minute registration remains open until 11:59pm tonight.

That said, in a year when AI, regulation, capital, and globalization are reshaping the industry, this is one of the most consequential days on Utah’s 2025 calendar.

Wednesday’s Summit will run from 7:15am to 5:20pm, followed by a closing reception and the signing of the KHIDI–BioUtah MOU.

As Cullimore says,

"Utah continues to gain national recognition as a biotech hub and remains one of the fastest-growing (such) hubs in the nation."

The bottom line is this: If you’re serious about Utah’s innovation economy, this is where you should be on Wednesday.

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