This hands-on, half-day workshop immerses participants in a realistic pharmaceutical portfolio decision using a data-rich Aurelis Biopharma case. Attendees evaluate competing pipeline programs, weigh strategic trade-offs, and make investment choices under uncertainty. Designed for those supporting or making portfolio decisions, it requires no deep technical expertise. Four structured segments move from qualitative debate to quantitative analysis and enterprise tooling, reinforcing that effective decisions blend rigorous analysis with informed judgment.

12:30 pm Registration Opens

1:00 pm Navigating Strategic Trade-Offs in Portfolio Decision-Making

The workshop opens with a structured discussion of the Aurelis scenario, designed to surface the core strategic tensions that define real-world portfolio decisions. Participants examine competing priorities such as franchise focus versus diversification, near-term execution certainty versus long-term platform investment, and commercial scalability versus scientific differentiation.Through facilitated dialogue, the session explores the perspectives of the Aurelis leadership team and challenges participants to evaluate the strength—and potential blind spots—of each point of view. Rather than driving toward consensus, the discussion emphasizes the inherent ambiguity in portfolio governance and highlights the limits of quantitative models in resolving fundamentally strategic questions. 

1:45 pm Making the Call: Collaborative Portfolio Prioritization Under Uncertainty

Participants break into small groups and are tasked with selecting two of four development programs to advance, using a shared dataset and constrained scenario. Each possible combination reflects a distinct strategic posture and implicitly prioritizes certain outcomes while sacrificing others.Teams then present and defend their decisions to the broader group. The debrief focuses on how and why different groups arrive at different conclusions despite working from identical inputs, with particular attention to framing effects, embedded assumptions, and the influence of group dynamics on decision outcomes. 

2:30 pm Networking Break 

2:45 pm From Assumptions to Insights: Building and Stress-Testing eNPV Models

In this hands-on exercise, participants construct a simplified expected Net Present Value (eNPV) model for four pipeline programs using standardized planning assumptions, including development costs, probability of technical and regulatory success, and commercial forecasts.The focus of the exercise is not on producing a definitive ranking, but on understanding how sensitive portfolio decisions are to underlying assumptions. Participants explore how small changes in key inputs—such as probability of success, peak sales, or discount rate—can significantly alter program prioritization, and how quantitative outputs both reinforce and challenge strategic intuition. 

3:45 pm Scaling Portfolio Decisions: Applying Advanced Analytics and Scenario Modeling

This session bridges the workshop exercises with enterprise-scale portfolio decision-making. Using the same Aurelis dataset, the facilitator demonstrates how advanced portfolio analytics support decision-making in complex environments, including Monte Carlo simulation of development outcomes, portfolio-level risk aggregation, scenario comparison, and optimization under resource constraints.The demonstration illustrates how analytical methods applied manually earlier in the workshop translate into scalable, repeatable decision-support capabilities when embedded in dedicated portfolio management platforms. The emphasis is on how these tools expand the scope of questions organizations can credibly answer. 

4:30 pm Integrating Strategy, Analytics, and Governance in Portfolio Decision-Making

The workshop concludes with a facilitated synthesis discussion that connects strategic framing, quantitative analysis, and decision governance. Participants reflect on how portfolio decisions are shaped not only by data and models, but also by organizational context, stakeholder alignment, and the structure of decision forums.The session draws together key themes from across the workshop, highlighting the interplay between qualitative judgment and quantitative rigor in shaping effective portfolio outcomes in practice.