CPHI Festival of Pharma Blog

With the Festival of Pharma now well and truly upon us, keep abreast of all that is happening and when over the ten days of this vast virtual event.

The opportunities to network, to find new customers and business partners, to meet with existing ones and build relationships with industry contacts and catch up on the latest market intelligence are all part and parcel of our CPHI physical events, and Informa Markets is very hopeful that we will be able to recommence them in the future.

But for now, much like the dedicated pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries that we serve, we’ve had to readjust our sights and try to deliver the best possible experience to our customers during these challenging times.

And with the CPHI Festival of Pharma, we believe we’ve succeeded.

Our intuitive AI-driven matchmaking tool uses your profile information to pair you with the most relative matches and lets you video meet, group conference call and more. And we have a stacked agenda full of educational content delivered by industry experts and thought leaders, discussing the key issues affecting pharma supply chains today.

As you’re reading this, the event is very much underway, and the great news is that every single piece of content during this ten-day extravaganza will be available to you on-demand.

Day Nine, Thursday October 15th

Today, we have a live panel discussion on the impact of API globalisation on drug shortages at 2pm – don’t miss this extremely topical debate featuring Weavchem, CPA, Civica Rx and Marsing & Co.

Preceding that, we also have a session this morning on trends & overcoming challenges in Ophthalmic Drug Delivery, featuring speakers from Boba Pharma, Lubrizol and Nelson Labs.

Day Eight, Wednesday October 14th

Today’s packed agenda features a roundtable on Innovation in Oncology Development with industry experts from West, Catalent, Covance and IQVIA. This is followed by our Women in Leadership Forum, discussing why empathy is the key leadership skill to future-proof our workplaces. Hear from senior leaders at Emergent BioSolutions, Dr Reddy’s, Shorla and Lachman Consultant Services among others.

Day Seven, Tuesday October 13th

Today’s agenda features a roundtable on the pressing issue of nitrosamine contamination in pharmaceutical products and how a better understanding of the precursors and conditions that trigger their formation might lead to risk reduction. Hear expert viewpoints from Chemsafe, Solvias, Dr Reddys, SGS Life and AstraZeneca.

And whatever you do, don't miss the 17th CPHI Pharma Awards ceremony later today, recognizing the innovation and dedication of companies and individuals who are driving the pharmaceutical industry forward. This year our Jury Members will be assessing entries across a total of 15 categories – including a NEW category for 2020 – Innovation in Response to COVID19.

Day Six, Monday October 12th

This week kicks off with Dr. Scott Gottlieb – Former FDA Commissioner – who will use his keynote platform to implore the industry on continuing its efforts towards combining record innovation with affordable healthcare.

We also have a podcast interview with Kelsey Achenbach, Head of Marketing at Roquette, discussing how companies in the pharma supply chain have had to shift their mindset to deal with adversity at a time of crisis and how core principles of leadership and focus must shine through if they are to navigate their workforces through the storm.

And later this afternoon, there is a roundtable session on patient centricity –- a buzz phrase that is used a lot these days --showcasing a nice blend of experts from Big Pharma, CDMO, patient advocacy, and clinical research.

Day Five, Friday October 9th

Whatever you do, don’t miss Friday’s panel discussion on how to meet increasing global demand for data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning and its potential for the pharmaceutical industry.

Hear from a range of experts from IQVIA, Affygility Solutions, PatchAi and Free University of Berlin on this technology’s potential to transform the industry and the challenges of successfully adopting it.

And while we’re on the subject of transformative technologies, check out our podcast interview with FabRx on the use of 3D printing in pharma manufacturing.

Meanwhile, our other panel discussion of the day focuses on the pharma regulatory landscape, addressing key points such as whether current regulatory frameworks are ready to support innovation, balancing opportunities and challenges and novel regulatory pathways and approaches. Featuring expert speakers from MSD, Pfizer CentreOne, SGS, Genome Lawyers, GC Legal Services and Clarivate Analytics.

Day Four, Thursday October 8th

COVID-19 has placed severe strain over pharmaceutical supply chains over the last few months and generally, they have stood up well to the test. Today, Caroline O'Brien, Global Quality Audit - Hub Director, Asia Pacific and Japan at AstraZeneca – who is also chair at the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative – will be delivering a keynote on how the industry needs to redefine the term ‘supply chain resiliency’ amid this global pandemic. She’ll be supported by Kyoung Lim, Senior Director of Supply Chain Management at Samsung Biologics.

Day Three, Wednesday October 7th

Without wishing to give too much away, we really recommend that you listen in to today’s compelling keynote address from Gil Roth, president of the Pharma & Biopharma Outsourcing Association.

He’ll be running the rule over the changing patient population landscape and ultimately what this means for drug manufacturers, as well as other challenges that the sector faces.

And you surely won’t want to miss our first panel discussion of the day on the highly topical subject of API production and what the future holds. Representatives from Kemiex AG, Informa, IQVIA and Aspen Oss B.V. will be tackling this one.

Day Two, Tuesday October 6th

Before we head into what Tuesday has in store for us, let’s just recap on what happened on Monday.

In a fireside chat, Informa Markets’ Dan Stanton quizzed Dr Frank Gupton, Department Chair, Chemical and Life Science Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University and co-founder of Phlow Corporation, both on his new enterprise which won $350 million of government funding earlier this year and his views that the US needs to expand its options and on-shore drug manufacturing and “creating a competitive landscape” for the future.

It was a fascinating interview, with Dr Gupton being probed for more information on Phlow’s plans, pipeline and timelines as well as its proposed use of ‘advanced’ continuous manufacturing.

And Adrian van den Hoven, Director General of Medicines for Europe, did not disappoint us with his shrewd analysis of how European institutions and governments and the pharmaceutical industry have fared so far during COVID-19.

After providing a concise summary of the logistical and supply chain challenges Europe faced in the first few months of the crisis such as border closures and national government hoarding of medicines, he identified some of the lessons that have been learned thus far and some key areas for improvement, particularly with regard to making medicines more available and accessible going forward.

To round off the day, we had two lively and informative panel discussions. The first focused on pharma’s effort to innovate and embrace technology in its drive to develop vaccines and therapeutics not just for COVID-19 but for other infectious diseases. The second discussion centred on vaccine development, both from an R&D and a manufacturing/distribution perspective.

On Tuesday, we have a podcast interview with the president of Vetter Pharma International USA, Troy Carpenter, on how CDMOs need to adapt to the changing drug development demands of their customers, a keynote address on the future of drug delivery, an Italian pharma outlook, and panel discussions on formulation challenges and the potential of cannabinoid-derived drugs.

Drug delivery comes front and centre next, with a session on the sector’s future prospects attempting to answer questions on best practice in patient-focused drug design. Nicholas Brooke from The Synergist, Anne-Lise Ducournau Lichtenberg from PFMD and Tim McLeroy from Aptar Pharma will all share their thoughts.

Milan was originally going to be the host city of CPHI Worldwide 2020 before it was cancelled due to the pandemic, so it is only right that we focus on the Italian pharmaceutical landscape for the next session.

This expert panel will include representatives from Tekno Scienze, Farmindustria, Assogenerici, and Aschimfarma.

Day One, Monday October 5th

On this very first day, we have a Keynote address from Adrian van den Hoven, Director General of Medicines for Europe, on something that all pharmaceutical manufacturers operating in Europe will want to know: how lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic will shape future EU pharmaceutical policy.

Next up on Day One is a webinar featuring Dr Frank Gupton, Department Chair, Chemical and Life Science Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University and co-Founder of Phlow Corporation, discussing the somewhat thorny topic of whether the US needs to reduce its reliance on nations such as China and India by ‘onshoring’ its drug manufacturing.

There’s nothing like a lively panel discussion to stoke interest, and today we have two for you to enjoy. The first will feature senior executives from Dr Reddy’s, FUJIFILM Toyama, EIT Health/ Advise Connect Inspire and Strategy& PwC on how the pharma industry is embracing a spirit of collaboration as well as innovation and technology to develop vaccines for COVID-19 as well as maintain production despite disrupted supply chains.

Hot on its heels comes our second panel discussion on the hugely topical and relevant issue of how the pharma industry is addressing COVID-19 vaccine development issues such as the need to scale up and speed up as quickly as possible. Tackling this subject will be senior representatives from IAVI, BD, CEPI and University of Oslo.