Worldwide event predicts global pharma trends for 2020

Content sessions identify value-added medicines, preventive drugs, early diagnostics and patient experience as some of the trends for the year ahead.

This year’s event saw a number of key indicators pointing to a strong year ahead for pharma in 2020. Emphasizing the current strength of the global industry, CPHI Worldwide’s own Pharma Index – an aggregated confidence score across all aspects of pharma in the largest economies – rose by 2.48%. Perhaps more significantly, overall ‘growth potential’ was perceived to have risen by an impressive 5.4% across the top 10 pharma nations, which bodes extremely well for the industry through 2020.

The CPHI Worldwide conference agenda explored a number of trends affecting the industry. One session pointed to the potential increase in value-added medicines (VAM), such as using existing molecules in new therapies for novel applications, as a good opportunity. Aurelio Arias, IQVIA senior consultant and panellist in the “Future of Medicine: What Are The Therapies Of Tomorrow?” session, suggested that a primary driver is the cost of novel therapies, which is putting ever-increasing pressure on healthcare budgets. Similarly, Thomas Solbach, Managing Director and Partner at Strategy&, believes that the future of healthcare will be disrupted by patient-driven technology, with emphasis on preventive medicine, early diagnostics and the patient experience.

Another issue gaining increased traction in boardrooms internationally is how to improve gender equality, and the event played host to a top executive discussion during the Women in Leadership Forum. The forum explored how inclusive workplaces are helping actively build corporate value over competitors. Speaking at the event, Melissa Rancourt, Founder and Chairman of Greenlight for Girls, believes that to take the next step forward, ‘diversity needs to be looked at in all aspects’, while Kathy Teoh, Global Diversity & Inclusion Consultant at DSM, suggests that future-fit workplaces will increasingly take a ‘collaborative approach to leadership and transition away from the command and control management models’.

The dramatic rise in the number of dedicated CMOs that provide cell or gene therapy services was also identified by experts as another key trend. Taking part in the session “Understanding the Cell and Gene Technology Opportunity”, Fiona Barry, associate editor at GlobalData’s PharmSource, states that advanced therapies still present fundamental challenges including pricing and reimbursement, regulatory requirements and immature manufacturing technologies.

Looking ahead at the potential 2020 deal drivers, the M&A Forum held in conjunction with Pharma Intelligence, reviewed the current M&A landscape. Natural Extracts were analysed at a dedicated podium focused on global demand, while the World of Pharma podium highlighted the future of pharma, with sessions on the potential opportunities in China and India.

In a major development for CPHI Worldwide, BioProduction ran alongside the event this year after merging with bioLIVE, and provided attendees with high quality bio manufacturing analysis. These included keynote presentations on “Today’s Challenges and Opportunities in Biomanufacturing”, “Rethinking Efficiency”, “Delivering High-Quality Therapeutics to Patients Faster Through Effective Data Management” and “Next Generation Biomanufacturing Facility Design and Optimisation.”

Orhan Caglayan, Brand Director at CPHI Worldwide added: “This year we saw another record breaking 48,961 attendance, and the industry is looking extremely healthy across the board – from NCEs and generics to finished product and API manufacturing. There’s a real confidence in all segments of the industry. Pharmaceutical machinery also made significant strides this year, with double the number of exhibitors we have seen in any other year. Next year, we will be hosting CPHI Worldwide in Milan for the first time in over a decade. It is the ideal time to return to Italy, as the industry in this country reaches record production volumes, and coupled with the wider macro trends, we anticipate a hugely successful 2020 for both the pharma industry and CPHI Worldwide.”

CPHI Worldwide is widely recognised as a barometer of pharma’s overall health – with the addition of BioProduction it is the only platform to cover all parts of the industry supply chain – and a strong event is reflective of a prosperous pharma sector.

In total, the event saw more than 170 countries represented, with 20 country pavilions, and 100+ content sessions spanning six different major events: CPHI Worldwide (ingredients), ICSE (contract services), P-MEC (machinery), InnoPack (packaging), FDF (finished dose), and BioProduction for bioprocessing and biomanufacturing.

Remarkably, as CPHI Worldwide enters its third decade, attendance has grown 10% year-on-year, with the event heading to Milan in 2020 – a country recently reported by Farmaindustria to have matched Germany in terms of total production and production per unit.