The winners of the 2016 CPHI Pharma Awards

13 prestigious pharma leaders picked from 100 entries.

The CPHI Pharma Awards, which received a record number of entries, launched four extra categories this year, covering: ‘Excellence in Pharma: Drug Delivery Devices’, ‘Excellence in Pharma: Regulatory Procedures and Compliance’, ‘Excellence in Pharma: Analysis, Testing and Quality Control’, and ‘Excellence in Pharma: Corporate Social Responsibility’.

Udit Batra, Member of the Executive Board of Merck and CEO, the life science business of Merck [known as MilliporeSigma in the US and Canada] won the prestigious Excellence in Pharma: CEO of the Year award. This award is recognition of his work in leading the acquisition of technology company Sigma-Aldrich, to create a €4.7 billion business offering more than 300,000 products to help customers accelerate discovery, development and manufacturing of life science applications and diagnostic testing.

In the ‘API Development’ category, Cambrex’s Novel Synthesis of Dronedarone Intermediate provided a patentable, 4-step, convergent process that utilises standard plant equipment – removing all need for chlorinated solvents and minimising waste.

The ‘Excipients and Formulations’ category saw two triumphant companies. Parteck SRP 80 Excipient by Merck* was recognised for sustained-release oral solid dose matrix tablets in the excipients category. With Capsugel honoured for it’s formulation of and intrinsically enteric capsule technology to deliver enteric protection and delayed release, without functional coating - enabling the oral delivery of sensitive macromolecules.

Pylote’s PYCLEAR PROTECTION Patient Protection & Cost-Efficiency received the ‘Excellence in Pharma: Packaging’ award for its breakthrough industrial innovation that replaces preservatives in consumer end products. PYCLEAR PROTECTION solves the problem of the risk of contamination without any change to the primary packaging and no impact on the manufacturing process.

In the ‘Drug Delivery Devices’ category, the 3M Intelligent Control Inhaler was honoured for its approach to addressing patient adherence and competence in Asthma and COPD patients. This is an intuitive, fully integrated device delivering accurate doses to patients, whilst providing on-screen instructions for use and feedback to the patient and health care provider via an app.

The ‘Excellence in Pharma: Contract Services and Outsourcing’ award went to Catalent Pharma Solutions for its OptiForm Solution Suite and OptiForm Solution Suite Bio. These offer easy, simple, fast and cost effective approaches for both small and macromolecules in early development phases.

With its third award of the evening, Merck Emprove Program won in the ‘Regulatory Procedures and Compliance’ category. The programme facilitates risk assessment and supplier qualification by providing instant, online access to regulatory and technical information on hundreds of products used in pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

FZC targeted the ‘Supply Chain, Logistics and Distribution’ challenges for its exemplary work in the MENA region through its Pharma Venture MENA - winning an award in this category.

Within ‘Analysis, Testing and Quality Control’, B&W Tek’s NanoLIBS was victorious. The handheld LIBS analyser helps companies comply with 21CFR Part 11, GMP, regional Pharmacopeias, and local policies based on PIC/S recommendations.

Novasep won the ‘Excellence in Pharma: Bioprocessing’ award with its BioSC Lab – a DSP Purification Breakthrough for the Biopharma Industry. The BioSC Lab chromatography is a flexible equipment that allows operations from one column up to six columns in batch, parallel batch or continuous processing with all media and membrane types.

Following the innovations in ‘Manufacturing Technology and Equipment’, winning GEA Group’s ConsiGma platform looks at the Future of Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing. This continuous manufacturing platform is a cost-efficient technology with a very small environmental footprint, performing raw material dosing and mixing, wet or dry granulation, drying, tableting and quality control, all in one line.

Finally, the ‘ Excellence in Pharma: Corporate Social Responsibility’ award went to Indena SpA's Centella asiatica for its Project in Madagascar. Focused on improving the living conditions of the local communities involved in Centella asiatica harvesting, the project started in October 2015 and will last for 3 years.

Andreas Mavrommatis, Global Marketing Director at UBM EMEA, added: “The CPHI Pharma Awards celebrates the entire pharma industry, its unique achievements, key people and technological innovations – it's a celebration of everything that is best in our industry. In the last few years, we have seen an impressive increase in the number of entries, a growing appreciation of the overall value and prestige that winning an Award confers on a company, and, of course, a tremendous increase in the quality of emerging technologies submitted for consideration.

"Feedback from our judges is that they have been simply blown away by the consistent quality of submissions – which makes their job of choosing a winner all the more difficult. On behalf of CPHI Worldwide and UBM EMEA, I would like to commend all of the finalists and offer my warmest congratulations to this year’s worthy winners.”