CPHI North America 2023 – From the Floor

Follow along for live updates from the Content team as we bring you the latest from CPHI North America 2023 - from session talks, panel discussions, interviews, and more, there's a lot to discover with CPHI Online at the Pennsylvania Convention Center! 

April 27

And that's CPHI North America 2023 done! We're so happy to have welcomed all our attendees, exhibitors, and speakers, seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones.

Whether it's collaborating with existing partners, establishing new connections, learning something new about the industry with all our insightful conference tracks, or getting your steps in wandering our incredible show floor, there's something for everyone at CPHI North America. 

We can't wait to see everyone again next year!

Even though we will be saying goodbye to our colleagues at the end of the day, there's still plenty of learning and collaborating to be done! 

Our final conference track on Technological Innovation & Advancement in Pharma includes sessions on Workplace 4.0 and the digital transformation of the pharma sector, the role of AI in drug development, and more. Keep checking back on CPHI Online to read our session write-ups and stay up-to-date on everything you might have missed.

It is officially the last day of CPHI North America 2023 and while we are sad to see all our wonderful friends and colleagues return to their homes across the globe, it's been a productive and innovative few days. But the fun isn't over yet! There's still more to talk about on the show floor and more to learn in our conference sessions, with our last conference track focusing on Technological Innovation & Advancement in Pharma, sponsored by Phlow. More to come!

April 26

Day 2 has officially concluded - and we are excited to meet attendees old and new at our After Hours Happy Hour! This is a great chance to meet and collaborate, but also to just have some good conversations with our friends and colleagues. 

It's also a great place to wonder in awe at some incredible acrobatics.

Our third track of the conference is sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific and focuses on navigating supply chain challenges and building resilience throughout the industry. Moderated by Bikash Chatterjee, CEO of Pharmatech Associates – A USP Company, the panel discussion 'Redesigning the Supply Chain - The Road to Increased Resilience' provides insight into building processes and workflows that establish a resilient supply chain facing unprecedented disruptions. 

Sheila Iyer, Executive Director Global Supply Planning at Amgen, states: "The way we look at supply chain resilience and sustainability... looks all the way from the supplier all the way to the patient... We’ve been working on digital tools to look at real-time trends and real-time visibility... one of the key themes is that a forecast is never right, it’s always changing. The goal is to be able to make a product for any one patient at any point in time. If you can get that agile and nimble, you are building a resilient supply chain.” 

Adding on to that, David McCarthy, Senior Director/TL -Supply Assurance and Risk Management at Pfizer comments: "We start with the processes first and then we try to find technologies to enable the processes... information is great but if you’re not doing anything with it’s totally useless. So how can we use the information to avoid a disruption... that’s how we’re using this technology.” 

Executive VP Biotech Supply Management at Alliance David Malenfant caveats: "We started talking about resilience in 2019 and then COVID-19 hit us pretty hard so we ramped up our resilience. But we forget that resilience is built on the people and processes, and you use technology to support those processes. What’s happened is we’ve just put in the technology with the wrong people and wrong processes in the wrong places.” 

Day 2 of CPHI North America 2023 and we are kicking it off with a Breakfast Session sponsored by Adare Pharma Solutions. Today we're looking at how to foster a successful collaboration with your first CDMO as a pharmaceutical or biotech start-up. Interesting stuff!

April 25

This year marks the 5th anniversary of CPHI North America. To celebrate, The Art of Pharma Anniversary Ball is being held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where the famous Rocky Balboa steps lead up to a collection of over 240,000 objects from around the world. 

Peter Bigelow, President of xCell Strategic Consulting, is giving a keynote speech highlighting the challenges and achievements throughout the history of CPHI North America as an essential regional trade show in the North American pharmaceutical services sector: "Many of us wondered whether the industry needed regional events in addition to the Global CPHI meeting in the gall and other global events. Well, the growth of this event has answered that question and I congratulate the CPHI staff on their vision and ability to execute an efficient and valuable exhibition for the industry... It would be crazy for a company to make their own capsules, form their own bottles, have an API plant in a city centre location, and put all the key functions in one building. We owe this to the maturation of the companies that supply the industry today... CDMOs and service providers are able to excel at the things they do because they are focused on specific capabilities and they do these activities over and over again."

The second conference track of CPHI North America 2023, sponsored by Pfizer CentreOne, focuses on Drug Manufacturing Dynamics, including a session on how to establish long-lasting and successful relationships with CDMOs. The panel, moderated by Peter Stevenson, Non-Executive, Independent Director at Piramal, discusses wide-ranging topics from choosing the right CDMO partner for expert analysis to avoiding disappointment and delays with the right framework. 

Rick Peevey (Executive Director, Manufacturing's Operations & External Supply, Elucida Oncology, Inc), Rick Knight (Global Head of Strategic Account Management, Pfizer CentreOne), and Jennifer Johns (Head of Product Development Strategy, Bristol Myers Squibb) offer their insights into their partnership experiences and the services and resources required to establish meaningful and prolonged CDMO partnerships.

Jessica R. Riggleman, Sr. Director, Clinical and Regulatory Affairs at Mydecine Innovations Group, gives an insightful overview of psychedelics and their role in the treatment of mental health conditions, as well as the results and lessons made from emerging investigator-initiated clinical trials and sponsored clinical trials. The effect of the North American regulatory landscape, especially the US FDA regulatory rulings, on psychedelic research is also a topic of heavy discussion throughout Riggleman’s presentation. 

Riggleman looks at several studies and investigator-initiated clinical trials looking at the relationship between psychedelic therapeutics and several aspects of mental health treatment, such as the use of psilocybin for treating treatment-resistant depression. 

“Talking about some of the manufacturing, preclinical, and clinical trials... at the beginning, it was almost impossible to find manufacturers that had the specific license needed – even if you were going out of the US, there were only one or two companies in Canada that had the specific licenses necessary and would take about a year for them to get. The time for it took for [animal research and preclinical studies’] protocols to get approved because it is a scheduled drug... I remember working with a larger preclinical company and we had to outsource to Switzerland or Sweden because it was easier to get into.” 

The first conference track, sponsored by Lonza, is kicking off with US Market Policy and Regulation Insights.

Sustainability and organisational frameworks in-line with ESG principles is a continuing discussion throughout all CPHI events, and CPHI North America is no exception. In a panel discussion with Marisa Sharkey, Director, Corporate Communications at Harmony Biosciences, and Michael G. Mahoney, Environmental Compliance Lead at Teva Pharmaceutical, moderator Bob Girton, Partner at Edgewater Capital, discuss what the implementation of ESG principles and DE&I work practices in the North American pharma industry looks like, and how transparency of ESG targets must be for the right reasons, not just for stakeholders.

"I think we're all, in the pharmaceutical sector, tainted by [greenwashing] and I think there's a wonderful opportunity to change that perception. One way to do that in the environmental area is to really focus on a few key areas where the sector can make a difference globally. For the pharmaceutical industry, the journey to achieve net-zero carbon emissions is an important one," Mahoney comments.

Sharkey adds: "It's also about sharing your programs, your opportunities, and... really getting to the heart of what this means for your stakeholders AND your patients, as well as your employees... something we communicators think about from an ESG viewpoint is... showing your employees how their work contributes and impacts communities, to THEIR stakeholders. That's what drives and helps people embrace the culture that your organisation is trying to foster."

The first Breakfast Session of CPHI North America 2023 is sponsored by ProductLife Group - we're so excited to see colleagues and partners mixing and mingling, forming new partnerships and connections to foster innovation and growth within the pharmaceutical services industry!

Don't forget to check out their pre-show interview here.

The ribbon has officially been cut and the show floor is open! Executive VP, Pharma of Informa Markets Adam Andersen is joined by Sheila Hess, City Representative of the city of Philadelphia on behalf of Mayor Jim Kenney, to formally open the show and welcome all attendees to the show floor. 

"Philly is the place to be to host CPHI North America," Hess states in her address. "As one of the nation's leading centres for innovation and sustainability, you chose the best city... We are undergoing an unprecedented development right now driven by the city's tech, educational, and medical institutions... It is a flourishing life sciences sector, not to mention the breakthroughs in gene and cell therapies at Philadelphia's headquarter organisations like Spark Therapeutics and research advancements thanks to our many incredibly talented research hospitals and institutions."

Andersen adds that "We're so glad to be here for many years, and many more to come. Thank you to all of our exhibitors, all of our colleagues, visitors, and attendees... We really believe that when we are together, we're stronger together."

With the ribbon cut and the booths set up, let the show begin!

What better way to start the show with a live band? The Fralinger String Band from the Mummers Parade, the oldest continuous folk parade in the US at 123 years old, are gracing us with some happy tunes as we gear up for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. 

It's the first official day of CPHI North America 2023 and we can't wait to get started! To kick off the show, we're gearing up for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially welcome all registrants, attendees, exhibitors, and more. Stay tuned for live updates! 

April 24 

We have officially landed in Philadelphia, home of the cheesesteak and host to CPHI North America 2023! 

As we prepare for the start of the show tomorrow, check out some of our pre-show interviews with track sponsors ProductLife Group and Phlow, where they discuss how the North American pharmaceutical supply chain is grappling with unique challenges. From regulatory updates to reshoring efforts, discover how the North American pharmaceutical industry is adapting and innovating. 

The stands are going up and the building is abuzz with activity in preparation for tomorrow. We're looking forward to greeting all our exhibitors and attendees!