CPhI Names Award Winners

At its annual awards gala CPhI unveiled the winners of the 2016 CPhI Pharma Awards at the Fairmont Rey Juan Carlos I, Barcelona. The awards honor companies and individuals driving the pharma industry forward through innovations, new approaches, technologies and strategies.

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 chief executive officer, MilliporeSigma, won the 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 utilizes standard plant equipment—removing all need for chlorinated solvents and minimizing waste.

The Excipients and Formulations category saw two winners. Parteck SRP 80 Excipient by Merck was recognized for sustained-release oral solid dose matrix tablets in the excipients category. Capsugel was honored 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 received the Excellence in Pharma: Packaging award for its breakthrough industrial innovation that replaces preservatives in consumer end products. Pylote’s Pyclear 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 honored 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, while 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 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, the Merck Emprove Program won in the Regulatory Procedures and Compliance category. The program 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 analyzer 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 1 column up to 6 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 S.p.A.’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 three years.

“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,” said Andreas Mavrommatis, global marketing director, UBM EMEA. “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.”
 
For more information on the CPhI Pharma Awards visit http://awards.cphi.com.