With over two decades of expertise in medical device development, O’Hagan shares how Stevanato Group leads the way in pharmaceutical packaging innovation, leveraging its glass manufacturing heritage, automation, and strategic collaborations.

Discover how the company enhances drug delivery systems, adapts to regional needs, and navigates market challenges to improve patient outcomes and drive industry growth.

Taking into consideration that although the practical and technical aspects have to line up, more and more partnerships are placing value in the corporations seeing ‘eye to eye’ because they want the relationship to grow and flourish. We touch on the importance of people, sustainability and values aligning for building successful partnerships.

Digital Editor Lucy Chard speaks to several experts direct from the floor of the show, bringing you right in on the action. 

In this special episode we hear from experts Tom Etheridge from Team Consulting, Lizzie Smith from Anthesis Group, Asmita Khanolkar from SMC Ltd, and our very own Sherma Ellis Daal from Informa Markets to give a few different perspectives on some aspects of the event and the industry as a whole.

Also covered is the need for solutions in combatting bias, such as by using tools including education and technology, and cross-sector collaboration. Banks highlighted how important it is to acknowledge the differences and work with them to change the lived mindset and make safer, more effective medicines.

Digital Editor Lucy Chard is joined by Nick DiFranco, MEM, the Global Market Manager for Novel Pharmaceutical Excipients at Lubrizol Life Science.

Lubrizol is a pioneer in the novel excipient development space so DiFranco can give a deep level of insight into the field as it stands, some of the innovative products they’re developing at Lubrizol, and the trends to look out for the in future.

To see more about everything we mentioned in the podcast, see the links below:

Women in Pharma Interviews 

Women in Pharma: Advancing gender diversity & healthcare equality - https://www.cphi-online.com/women-in-pharma-advancing-gender-diversity-news121441.html

Women in Pharma: Empowering yourself and other women in pharma - https://www.cphi-online.com/women-in-pharma-empowering-yourself-and-other-news122294.html

Sustainability 

CPHI Sustainability Trend Report 2023: Towards a Greener Future - https://www.cphi-online.com/cphi-sustainability-trend-report-2023-towards-a-news121332.html

CPHI Podcast Series: An insight into the Chief Sustainability Officer - https://www.cphi-online.com/cphi-podcast-series-an-insight-into-the-chief-news120741.html

CPHI Podcast Series: Sustainable Strategies in the Pharmaceutical Packaging Industry - https://www.cphi-online.com/cphi-podcast-series-sustainable-strategies-in-the-news119779.html

Top Content

Your Prescription for Marketing Success: Digital Pharma Marketing Toolkit – Free eBook - https://www.cphi-online.com/your-prescription-for-marketing-success-digital-news121086.html

10 Major Drug Approvals So Far in 2023 - https://www.cphi-online.com/10-major-drug-approvals-so-far-in-2023-news121294.html

CPHI Podcast Series: Exploring neurological frontiers in Alzheimer's and beyond - https://www.cphi-online.com/cphi-podcast-series-exploring-neurological-news122273.html

The CPO Starter Pack: Why and When to Bring in a Contract Packaging Partner - https://www.cphi-online.com/the-cpo-starter-pack-why-and-when-to-bring-in-a-news120889.html

Ashwagandha and Herbal Medicines: Pharma’s Next Big Opportunity - Welcome to the last episode of 2023! Digital Editor Lucy Chard is joined by her team in a special retrospective episode to close out the year. Guests Vivian Xie, Editor for CPHI Online and Tara Dougal, Content Director for Pharma, discuss their highlights from the year; diversity, sustainability, and the CPHI Barcelona event cropping up as top features. The Women in Pharma series that Vivian has worked on for the past year has been a resounding success, some of our most impactful content on CPHI Online, which, as arguably some of our most important content we are so pleased to see that reflected with our audience. We also cover sustainability, drug approvals, Alzheimer's research, mRNA oncology vaccines, and digital marketing for pharma companies.

To see more about everything we mentioned in the podcast, see the links below:

Women in Pharma Interviews 

Women in Pharma: Advancing gender diversity & healthcare equality - https://www.cphi-online.com/women-in-pharma-advancing-gender-diversity-news121441.html

Women in Pharma: Empowering yourself and other women in pharma - https://www.cphi-online.com/women-in-pharma-empowering-yourself-and-other-news122294.html

Sustainability 

CPHI Sustainability Trend Report 2023: Towards a Greener Future - https://www.cphi-online.com/cphi-sustainability-trend-report-2023-towards-a-news121332.html

CPHI Podcast Series: An insight into the Chief Sustainability Officer - https://www.cphi-online.com/cphi-podcast-series-an-insight-into-the-chief-news120741.html

CPHI Podcast Series: Sustainable Strategies in the Pharmaceutical Packaging Industry - https://www.cphi-online.com/cphi-podcast-series-sustainable-strategies-in-the-news119779.html

Top Content

Your Prescription for Marketing Success: Digital Pharma Marketing Toolkit – Free eBook - https://www.cphi-online.com/your-prescription-for-marketing-success-digital-news121086.html

10 Major Drug Approvals So Far in 2023 - https://www.cphi-online.com/10-major-drug-approvals-so-far-in-2023-news121294.html

CPHI Podcast Series: Exploring neurological frontiers in Alzheimer's and beyond - https://www.cphi-online.com/cphi-podcast-series-exploring-neurological-news122273.html

The CPO Starter Pack: Why and When to Bring in a Contract Packaging Partner - https://www.cphi-online.com/the-cpo-starter-pack-why-and-when-to-bring-in-a-news120889.html

Ashwagandha and Herbal Medicines: Pharma’s Next Big Opportunity - https://www.cphi-online.com/ashwagandha-and-herbal-medicines-pharma-s-next-news122695.html

The Patient-Centric Synergy of Pharmaceutical CDMO and CRO Collaborations - https://www.cphi-online.com/the-patient-centric-synergy-of-pharmaceutical-news122510.html

Delivering on mRNA-based therapeutics: innovations in applications and packaging - https://www.cphi-online.com/delivering-on-mrna-based-therapeutics-innovations-news121217.html

Upcoming 

2024 Pharma Trends Outlook: Collaboration, Market Maturity, and Digital Futures for Pharma

Pharmapack 2024 - https://www.pharmapackeurope.com/en/home.html

CPHI Webinar Series - Innovative Strategies for B2B Pharma Marketeers: Driving Value through Content – 20th February 2024 4pm CET

Sustainability report 2024

CPHI Milan 2024 - https://europe.cphi.com/europe/en/home.html

They highlight some of the key areas that teams have to work on, the detailed analysis that has to take place at each stage, as well as within the wider context with regulations to consider, and finally they highlight some of the key areas for innovation and for expanding knowledge in the field. 

In the podcast we discuss what it means to be in the role of a Chief Sustainability Officer, how the role is set to develop along with more established sustainability teams. The role they provide is so integral to the overall health of a pharma company, the pharma supply chain and subsequently the health of the planet. Hunt's optimism about the industry making real changes to how they work and meeting goals such as Net Zero really comes across, with the outlook for the future of sustainability in pharma a bright one. 

By their nature, rare diseases are incredibly difficult to research and develop medicines for, but this just makes it all the more urgent to fulfil this unmet need for rare disease patients.

In this podcast I am joined by Rachel Smith; Rachel is the Executive Director, Global Head of Rare Diseases at Parexel. Rachel brings more than a decade of experience in every development phase of rare disease and cell and gene therapy clinical trials to her work with Parexel’s rare disease clients.

Previously, she served as Vice President of Clinical Operations, Portfolio Director of Rare Disease, and Global Head of the Cell & Gene Center of Excellence at Veristat LLC. She led programs in ADA-SCID, Canavan disease, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, Fabry disease, Gaucher disease, metachromatic leukodystrophy, and Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome. Rachel has expertise in clinical development strategy, novel and adaptive trial design, decentralized trials, and other creative solutions for rare disease products with a non-classical route to market.

Upgrading this Packaging in pharma comes in all shapes and sizes – whether we are talking about replacing single use plastics in manufacturing, or waste management at the end of the commercial chain.

Today we will be talking about sustainability in the pharmaceutical packaging industry, how it can be more ingrained and the impact it will have, with an expert from a leading European packaging company, Adelphe. Félicie Pachot is the Health Marketing Manager at Adelphe and she goes into the model Adelphe uses to support sustainable practices through recycling, reduction of waste, and resue.

Pharma 4.0 is the upgrading of the pharma industry to a more digitalised state, including automation of processes and greater system integration. This has a wealth of advantages, such as leading to greater compliance and quality control in the manufacturing process. Pharma 4.0 also leads to increasing the sustainability of many aspects of the pharmaceutical chain. Dr Reddy’s is a leading pharmaceutical company and is at the forefront of adopting industry 4.0 into their everyday systems. 

Dr Reddy’s largest manufacturing facility in Bachupally, Hyderabad, India, recently joined the Global Lighthouse Network of the World Economic Forum, a network of over 100 manufacturing companies committed to developing and leading the progression into Industry 4.0 technologies. 

This commitment from Dr Reddy’s will help to reduce manufacturing costs, production lead time, and energy consumption, as well as increasing the quality assurance throughout the manufacturing process.

This is a competitive arena and among all the companies operating in this space, startups are generally seen as the drivers of innovation, often taking high-risk approaches and doing business with greater agility.

In this episode, CPHI is joined by Gareth Pearce, founder of Pacifi Ltd, a startup that modifies glass vials with laser technology to create DuoVIAL, an innovative lyophilized drug delivery solution. Gareth takes us through his company’s journey, explains his long-term vision and speaks more broadly about the role events can play in a startup’s path to success.

Listen to the full episode now.

So, what can be done to limit the spread of these diseases and prevent the next pandemic?   

In the latest episode in the CPHI Podcast Series, we hear from two companies – Chipsafer and SoundTalks - whose products use data analytics and AI to identify diseases in animals at the earliest indication. Chipsafer is a patented platform that detects and tracks anomalies in livestock behaviour, giving farmers earlier warning when disease breaks out in the herd. Joining us to break down how the platform works is Chipsafer’s founder and CEO, Victoria Alonsoperez. Similarly, SoundTalks is a company that provides real-time health monitoring in pig herds, using microphones and sound analytics to detect possible outbreaks of respiratory disease. SoundTalks’ founder Dries Berckmans joins us to discuss.  

However, the lack of an independent regulatory pathway for novel excipients has historically created barriers to their use and discouraged innovation in the excipients space. In this episode Nigel Langley, Chair of IPEC – Americas and Global Technology Director at BASF Corporation, joins us to discuss developments in the novel excipients arena, as well as the pilot review program launched by the FDA last year. 

Supplements can be an excellent way to cover deficiencies not addressed by food intake, but the wide range of products available in health food shops, pharmacies and supermarkets can be overwhelming for consumers. And while market growth is expected to continue, products such as herbal supplements and CBD continue to face regulatory issues and scrutiny over the soundness of their health claims.

To discuss the latest trends in the supplements space, we’re joined this month by David Ridley, Senior Editor at HBW Insight and host of Over the Counter podcast. He tells us which products surged in popularity during the pandemic, discusses the rise of self-care, and gives an overview of the regulatory environment in Europe.

For this reason, many biotech and pharma companies are now having to outsource the manufacturing of their drug products. Yet, many have limited-to-no experience of working with a CMO.

In this episode we have the pleasure of being joined by Jayna Blake, Senior Project Manager for Technical Programs at Baxter BioPharma Solutions, a leading CMO with a focus on specialized sterile injectable manufacturing.

The need for sustainable solutions is recognised by both industry and consumers, with many companies reimagining their products and processes to incorporate more eco-friendly materials, minimise waste and improve social impact.

One such company is SHL Medical, a producer of advanced delivery devices such as autoinjectors, who are utilising data science to advance their sustainability goals.

In this week’s episode, CPhI speaks to Frederick Gertz, Manager of Data Science at SHL, and Veluska Bruce, ESG project manager, about the relationship between data and sustainability. They explain how data insights drove the installation of more sustainable manufacturing processes and advocate for the ‘win-win scenarios’ made possible by adopting a data-driven approach.

Many companies are turning to M&A to optimise their portfolios and gain access to new technologies, fuelled by an abundance of capital in the sector. These deals can have transformative effects on the companies involved; ideally promoting synergy, diversifying product offerings and improving economies of scale.  

However, striking a successful deal takes a lot more than agreeing a price and signing on the dotted line. A company must consider the impact of M&A on its people – how to integrate teams, retain talent and communicate effectively.  

CPhI spoke to Dr Fintan Walton, CEO and Founder of PharmaVentures, about the central role of people in a successful M&A deal. He tells us about the importance of integration planning, e

This month’s guest is Alex Driver, Senior Consultant at Team Consulting, who draws on an engineering background to advise on considerations for optimal design strategies and shares some great examples of innovative device solutions on the market.

To support innovation, the biopharma industry needs a suitably skilled workforce, and therein lies one significant challenge facing the market at present. Emerging technologies and new capabilities require a specialized skill-set, and finding the right candidates in a competitive market can be complex. This podcast will discuss what can be done to close this skills-gap, enabling biopharma innovation to continue at pace.

With so many outsourcing options available, selecting the CDMO that is the right fit for any particular sponsor company can be a challenging task.

We speak with Frank Ternes, Chief Commercial Officer and Filip Ringborg, Director Contract Management & Operations Development, at Recipharm on best practice when it comes to selecting the right fit for your outsourcing requirements and how strategic partnerships built on trust are fundamental to success.

The complex science around mRNA is very different from that of small molecule traditional pharmaceuticals or traditional biologics such as monoclonal antibodies.

This month we speak to Christy Eaton, Global SME, Sterile Drug Products, Pharma Services Group at Thermo Fisher Scientific about how CDMOs are providing their manufacturing and fill finish expertise to bring mRNA vaccines to market in as timely a fashion as possible.

However, while it is true that pharmaceuticals are more heavily regulated, this does not mean that cosmetics developers can rest on their laurels.

The subtle lines between making marketing claims about cosmetics that are deemed allowable and those crossing the line into drug products can often be blurred. The wrong claims can cause a cosmetic product to be misbranded attracting unwanted attention from the US Food and Drug Administration.

In this podcast with John Bailey and Catherine Bailey from EAS Consulting, we take a look at the various common compliance issues that can arise when jumping the boundary from drugs to cosmetics.

There is also rising consumer demand for cannabinoids, exacerbated by a shift towards ‘natural’ and toxin free products, which present an interesting opportunity for ingredient manufacturers and producers.

In this podcast we speak to Dr. Monica Vialpando, founder and CEO of Via Innovations about the promising applications of cannabinoids, the innovative approaches to product development and formulation, and examining the regulatory and legal considerations of bringing these products to market and whether there is an opportunity for pharma companies to diversify into the cosmetics market.

In many cases, M&A gives companies the opportunity to expand their reach beyond certain geographies or beef up their service offerings with additional capabilities in the development and manufacturing chain.

In this month’s podcast, we speak to Kevin Bottomley, partner at global corporate advisory firm focused on healthcare and life science companies, Results Healthcare, about what is driving M&A strategies in the pharma space and whether investors see high potential for the highly fragmented CDMO sector.

In pharmaceutical manufacturing, spray drying is suited to the production of peptides, proteins, and poorly water-soluble APIs, because it allows them to be co-processed with amorphous form stabilizers or solubility enhancement excipients. Another advantage is that the approach reduces the number of unit operations, potentially lowering manufacturing costs.

In this podcast interview with Stefano Console, Senior Advisor and Founder at Oriento, we explore how spray drying can overcome the problem of low bioavailability that all too often stalls clinical testing programmes as well as how it can help in drying and formulating biologics compounds.

Advantages of the approach include the ability to use a wide range of excipients and the ease with which process analytical technology can be incorporated.

In this podcast, we speak to Bruce Frank at Lubrizol Life Science Health about how HME has developed as a proven technology for bioavailability enhancement of poorly soluble active pharmaceutical ingredients and drug eluting implants and devices, and how it stacks up against other formulation options in terms of cost and scalability in order to deliver high quality, commercialised pharmaceutical products.

In 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration published guidance clarifying the regulatory classification of pharmaceutical co-crystal solid-state forms for companies planning to submit new drug applications. This move has generated a lot of interest in the co-crystal field.

In this podcast, we talk to Andy Singh, Founder and CEO at Asha Pharma about how the use of co-crystals has evolved and what are the best approaches to screening and selecting co-crystals to identify the most viable ones to help find suitable development candidates.

In this podcast, Informa Markets’ Head of Content, Tara Dougal and Pharma Editor, Gareth Carpenter run the rule over a packed three-day agenda running from 18-20 May of webinars, podcasts and learning labs.

Incorrectly disposed medicines may also contribute to the serious problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

In this podcast we talk to Dan Caldwell, PhD, Toxicology Fellow, Johnson & Johnson and Steve Brooks, Advisor to the AMR Industry Alliance about what progress the industry is making in terms of addressing the multifaceted challenges that the release of pharmaceuticals poses to the environment, looking at all key points within the pharmaceutical lifecycle.

About the Speakers:

Fabien Du Fraisse, Vice President, Account Management, Quanticate

Fabien Du Fraisse is the Vice President of Account Management and is responsible for overseeing the key Strategic Accounts at Quanticate. He has extensive experience in both commercial and marketing functions in the Life Science Industry, having held positions at GSK, Unilever, and the UK Government; Fabien Joined Quanticate in 2015. He earned his BSc in Biochemistry from the University of East London.

Deepu Joseph, Vice President and Global Head of Clinical Data Management, Quanticate

Deepu Joseph is currently serving as Vice President and Global Head of Clinical Data Management with Quanticate and has over fifteen years of experience in managing and driving clinical data management operations delivery across major CROs.

What are the main challenges for pharma manufacturers during the digital era?

Have stringent regulatory requirements and emphasis on compliance stifled/slowed innovation and continuous improvement in pharmaceutical manufacturing?

What digital tools are currently available to pharma/biotech manufacturers to improve their processes?

What can manufacturers do to utilise digital solutions without compromising the regulatory requirements?

How will the implementation of Pharma 4.0 impact human workforces?

About the Speaker:

Thomas Halfmann, Global Head Production IT, NNIT

Thomas Halfmann is an advocate of digitalization in Life Sciences Production and Supply Chain with more than 25 years of experience in manufacturing IT and automation in the life sciences industry. After various management positions at Novartis, including Head Global Project Office, Global MES Program Manager and Global Head Biopharmaceutical Operations IT, Thomas co-founded the international life sciences consulting group HGP in 2008. HGP had offices in Switzerland, Germany, Singapore, Poland and Indonesia and was acquired by NNIT in 2019. Since October 2019 Thomas is the Global Head Production IT for NNIT. He is a frequent speaker at international life sciences conferences, author of various publications and member of various industry associations like ISPE and OPC Foundation where he is one of the Directors of the OPEN-SCS Working Group since 2018.

Nevertheless, many digital investments were seen as experimental projects which would likely reap dividends in future years rather than the immediate present. It has taken a global pandemic to fundamentally change this outlook, as pharma firms renew their enthusiasm for digital solutions.

In this interview with Stefan Schmidinger, Partner at Kemiex and Florian Hildebrand, Managing Partner at Qualifyze, we discuss the vast array of challenges and opportunities around the ongoing digital transformation in pharmaceutical supply chains but also the effect a hugely traumatic 2020 had on the ingredients manufacturing sector’s perception of digitalisation and whether it has speeded up companies’ take up of new technologies.

After an enthralling US Election, Democratic nominee and former Vice-President Joe Biden is now US President Elect. While there is no doubt that his overall vision will differ immensely from that of outgoing President Donald Trump, it is less clear whether the new administration will mean big changes for healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

In this interview with Peter Loge, former senior advisor to the Food & Drug Administration Commissioner in the Obama Administration, we seek to shed some light on the potential impact of Biden’s election on issues that directly affect the industry, including drug pricing, manufacturing and R&D.

About the Speaker:

Peter Loge, Associate Professor of Media and Public Affairs, School of Media and Public Affairs, George Washington University

Peter has over 20 years of experience in communications including a presidential appointment at the Food and Drug Administration and senior positions for Sen. Edward Kennedy and three members of the US House of Representatives. He currently leads the Project on Ethics in Political Communication at the School of Media and Public Affairs.

Prior to joining the full-time faculty at SMPA, Peter served as a senior advisor to the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration in the Obama administration, a presidential appointment. In this role, he developed and helped lead the strategic communication efforts for some of the top White House and FDA health priorities including the Cancer Moonshot, the Precision Medicine Initiative and combating the opioid crisis.

In recent years, the government’s efforts to curb pharmaceuticals expenditure and promote local manufacturing have resulted in a fast-growing generics market. European, US, and Indian companies have established production facilities in the country – and in particular at the King Abdullah Economic Industrial Valley – providing a full range of products including antibiotics, diabetic treatments, cardiovascular drugs, and anticoagulants. So opportunities abound for additional manufacturers to establish a presence in the Kingdom, especially in vaccines, APIs, injectables, and biologics.

In this podcast interview, Musaed Alkholief, Associate Professor at the College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, and Consultant at King Abdullah Institute for Research and Consulting Studies discusses how biopharmaceutical companies can unlock those undoubted opportunities presented by the proposed transformation of Saudi Arabia’s health sector.

To download your copy of the CPhI Annual Report, please visit CPhI-Online

To register your place at the event, click here.

However, with the current coronavirus pandemic continuing to apply pressure on supply chains, and business travel and physical industry events ruled out for the time being, the market is having to reassess how it facilitates trade of these vital raw materials. There have been price volatility spikes in certain APIs and traders are keen to see more transparency in the market to mitigate risk.

In this interview with Global Pharma Insights, Stefan Schmidinger, Partner at Kemiex AG, we discuss how API procurement, marketing and trading units are adapting to a strictly digital environment, and whether there is a pent-up need for more information.

As a result, we’ve started a monthly series of CPhI podcasts in which industry experts will discuss the latest developments and trends affecting pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies in this vital sector as they work to develop and distribute life-saving and life-changing medicines during a global pandemic.

To kick off the series, we look back at a series of five one-hour webinars we hosted last month to showcase the pharma industry’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact of the crisis on global supply chains, drug manufacturing, discovery and development.