Health Care

Therapeutics Conference Thematic Outlook 2026

Nov. 11, 2025

Filmed at the TD Cowen 28th Annual Therapeutics Conference, we highlight key therapeutics themes for 2026. Items discussed include a turning point for genetic medicine, innovation in ADCs, Sjogren's disease as an untapped I&I frontier, a renaissance for dermatology and novel orphan neurology & neuromuscular indications. We also expect volatility as changes within FDA that can both hinder (reduced staffing) or support innovation (expedited approvals).

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Tara Bancroft, PhD
Tara Bancroft, PhD
Vice President, Health Care – Biotechnology Research Analyst, TD Cowen

Biography

Tara Bancroft, Ph.D. is a Vice President and senior equity research analyst on the biotechnology team at TD Cowen. Dr. Bancroft has over five years of equity research experience covering large-, mid-, and small-cap biotechnology stocks.

Prior to joining TD Cowen, Dr. Bancroft was an AVP at Piper Sandler (previously Piper Jaffray) for three years. Prior to Piper Sandler, Dr. Bancroft spent over four years as a postdoctoral researcher first at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in San Diego where she identified optimized antigen epitopes for a re-formulated pertussis vaccine that went on to be published in Cellular Immunology and others. She then completed a postdoc at Fred Hutch in Seattle, where she discovered B-cell precursors to protective anti-HIV antibodies for the purpose of HIV vaccine design (which was published in JEM and others).

She received her Ph.D. from Yale University where she focused on discovering novel mechanisms involved in vascular injury and inflammation, resulting in numerous primary publications. She also completed a BS in biology at SUNY Buffalo, where she worked full-time in an oncology lab (with published work in JCP) and at an HIV clinical trial center.

Ritu Baral
Ritu Baral
Managing Director, Health Care – Biotechnology Research Analyst, TD Cowen

Biography

Ritu Baral joined TD Cowen in August 2014 as a senior biotechnology analyst and managing director. Ms. Baral has more than nineteen years of experience in biotechnology finance, including over sixteen years in biotechnology equity research. Her coverage has focused on rare diseases and neurology. From August 2006 until June 2014, she held a series of positions in biotechnology equity research at Canaccord Genuity, including senior analyst and managing director. Before that, Ms. Baral was an equity research associate at JMP Securities and a senior associate at the Trout Group. Previously, she was a research associate at Columbia University’s Department of Medicine, where she participated in neuroendocrine research focused on appetite and metabolism regulation, and completed graduate coursework in immunology.

Ms. Baral graduated with a BA in biological sciences from Barnard College. She is involved in a number of rare disease patient advocacy organizations, including as a board member of the Everylife Foundation for Rare Disease and the Industry Advisory Board of the National Tay-Sachs and Allied Diseases Foundation. She was previously on the board of directors of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation.

Stacy Ku, PhD
Stacy Ku, PhD
Director, Health Care – Biotechnology Research Analyst, TD Cowen

Biography

Stacy Ku is a director on TD Cowen’s biotechnology team. She joined TD Cowen in March 2018 after completing her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Her NIH-funded fellowship research focused on the neurophysiological circuit interrogation of mechanisms underlying depression and stress. Her collaborative research experience also includes psychiatric and neurological disorders, spanning addiction, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease.

Dr. Ku holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University in Neuroscience and Behavior.

Joseph Thome, PhD
Joseph Thome, PhD
Managing Director, Health Care – Biotechnology Research Analyst, TD Cowen

Biography

Joseph Thome is a managing director and senior research analyst on TD Cowen’s biotechnology team. Dr. Thome was selected as a “Rising Star in Equity Research” by Business Insider in 2021 and the TD Cowen biotechnology team has consistently been among the top-ranked teams in the Greenwich Survey.

Prior to joining TD Cowen in March 2016, Dr. Thome was an NIH pre-doctoral research fellow at Columbia University, studying the compartmentalization and maintenance of the human T cell immune response from infancy into adulthood. His research has been published in several prestigious journals including Cell and Nature Medicine.

Dr. Thome received a BA with high honors in chemistry and biochemistry from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Columbia University, where he was granted the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research.

Yaron Werber, MD, MBA
Yaron Werber, MD, MBA
Managing Director, Health Care – Biotechnology Research Analyst, TD Cowen

Biography

Dr. Yaron Werber is a Managing Director and senior research analyst on TD Cowen’s biotechnology team. In this role, Dr. Werber is responsible for providing analysis on large-, mid-, and small-cap biotechnology stocks. Dr. Werber has 20+ years of experience as a research analyst in the financial services industry and has served as an executive in a public biotechnology company.

Prior to rejoining TD Cowen, Dr. Werber was a founding team member, chief business and financial officer, treasurer and secretary of Ovid Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on developing transformative drugs for orphan disorders of the brain. In this role, Dr. Werber established and was responsible for all financial planning and reporting, business development, strategy, operations/IT and investor and public relations and human resources functionality. Dr. Werber also led negotiations to secure several pipeline compounds including an innovative partnership with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, a deal that expanded Ovid’s pipeline and pioneered a novel approach for partnering the focused expertise of small biotech with big pharma.

This deal was chosen by Scrip as a finalist for the 2017 Best Partnership Alliance Award. In addition, Dr. Werber oversaw all financing activities and led a $75 million Series B round in 2015 and Ovid’s $75 million IPO in 2017. In that capacity, Dr. Werber was selected as an “Emerging Pharma Leader” by Pharmaceutical Executive magazine in 2017.

Prior to joining Ovid, Dr. Werber worked at Citi from 2004 to 2015, where he most recently served as a managing director and head of U.S. healthcare and biotech equity research. During his tenure at Citi, Dr. Werber led a team that conducted in-depth analyses of life science companies at all stages of development, ranging from successful, profitable companies to recently public and privately held companies. Previously, Dr. Werber was a senior biotech analyst and vice president at SG Cowen Securities Corporation from 2001- 2004.

Dr. Werber has been awarded several accolades for performance and stock picking, he has been highly ranked by Institutional Investor magazine, has received awards from Starmine and was voted among the top five analysts in biotech in the Wall Street Journal’s “Best on the Street” Greenwich survey. He has frequently been featured as a guest on CNBC, Fox News, Bloomberg News and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, Bloomberg thestreet.com and BioCentury.
Dr. Werber earned his B.S. in Biology from Tufts University, cum laude, and a combined M.D./MBA degree from Tufts University School of Medicine where he was a Terner Scholar.