R/Pharma
R/Pharma is a scientifically & industry oriented, collegial online conference focused on the use of R in the development of pharmaceuticals, with breakout in-person and APAC satellite events.
Our mission:
- Promote the use of open source, and collaboration between companies
- Put on fantastic, vendor free, community events like R/Pharma, R/Pharma APAC and R/Pharma Summit
- Encourage seminars, discussion and facilitate collaboration between companies
Our impact
Latest Announcement
R/Pharma 2026 is happening October 20–21!
Workshops will take place September 28 – October 1.
Registration is available via this link
Follow us on LinkedIn to be notified when submissions open and to stay up to date on speakers, program announcements, and conference news.
R/Pharma
The first conference took place in 2018, as an in-person event hosted by Harvard. During Covid-19, the conference moved to be online, and grew in participation to more than 2,600 data scientists from the pharma world with a passion for using R.
The conference is free to attend, and all hosting costs are met by contributions by Pharma companies.
R/Pharma runs Europe/US and APAC tracks. To register click the button below.
R/Pharma Summit
The R/Pharma summit has run for three years at posit::conf. In 2025, over 100 representatives from 40+ companies met in-person to discuss some of the most pressing topics pharma is tackling. The in-person summit focuses on the future of drug development using open source and tailored for program leaders and people leading Open Source initiatives. A summary of prior years is here: Summit page.
In 2026 we will host two summits. The first will run on September 13th in Houston, TX, the day before posit::conf. The second will run on October 5th at the Novartis Campus in Basel.
Registration for the US summit is available via posit::conf and more details on the European summit are available here.
We invite the public to suggest and comment on round-table discussions through the summit Github Discussion Board.
Community
Diversity Alliance
We aspire to be an inclusive R community for developers who work in the pharma space. Our goal is to provide a welcoming, equitable and supportive space for people to upskill, share knowledge and build a community of diverse voices. The R/Pharma Diversity Alliance is a space where all ways of being and doing can feel welcome. Each year, the Diversity Alliance put on a hackathon to introduce new voices to open source R package development. For more details subscribe to our meeting calendar or email us at diversityalliance@opensourceinpharma.com.
R/Pharma Hangouts
The monthly R/Pharma hangout is a place to discuss all things open source. The hangouts are hosted by Eric Nantz and Jared Woolfolk and are never recorded so you can be yourself! For more details, subscribe to our meeting calendar.
Proceedings
R/Pharma curates proceedings from previous conferences on this site, and on YouTube. You can find information on previous talks and workshops on the events page.