CPHI Milan 2026: From the Floor

Welcome to our live coverage from the heart of the pharmaceutical industry's most anticipated event of the year! As CPHI Milan 2026 unfolds across the sprawling exhibition halls of Fiera Milano, we're bringing you real-time insights, breakthrough innovations, and the stories that matter most – straight from the show floor.

On Track with the CPHI Milan Track Sponsors

Our Track Sponsors keep our conference sessions filled to the brim with the most impactful discussions and ideas. Hear from this year's sponsors of the Manufacturing 5.0, Next-Gen Bio, and Supply & Formulation Excellence theatres and discover what awaits across this year's different theatres.

Track Sponsor Interview – Supply excellence with Catalent
 

Track Sponsor Interview - Anil Kane - Thermo Fisher Scientific

Track Sponsor Interview - Next-Gen Bio - FUJIFILM Biotechnologies

CPHI Milan Sustainability Summit

The CPHI Milan Sustainability Summit is an inaugural initiative spearheaded by Informa Markets own Sustainability & Partnerships Director Silvia Forroova and the Sustainability Steering Committee. Learn more about what's in store at the Summit this year!

From Dialogue to Delivery: Pharma’s Next Chapter in Sustainability

The CPHI Sustainability Summit - Where Conversation Becomes Collaboration

Day 1

From collaboration to action

Sylvia Forroova, Director of the Sustainability Collective, opened the inaugural Sustainability Summit by reflecting on the hard work and long gestation behind it… and, above all, the collaborative effort that has brought the Sustainability Collective to this point

Now, she said, the time feels right to take that work forward under the CPHI banner and bring a much wider community into the conversation.

But the next two days are not simply about talking. Forroova challenged delegates to use the Summit as an opportunity to be inspired… and then to take that inspiration back into their businesses.
The ambition is clear: share ideas, learn from each other, and turn inspiration into action.

Look beyond the noise

In a hugely positive opener at the Sustainability Summit, keynote speaker Sunny Kapoor offered a welcome challenge to the relentlessly negative news cycle: learn to distinguish signal from noise.

While political turbulence and polarisation dominate the headlines, Kapoor pointed to a different story unfolding across Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, where talent, investment, opportunity and economic growth are creating multiple new engines of global progress.

That matters for climate change, too. The technology to tackle it exists, he argued, and capital is increasingly looking for longer-term opportunities. Talent, meanwhile, is globally distributed.

The implication is both optimistic and practical: the future doesn’t have to be determined by today’s loudest voices. A world with multiple growth engines is stronger than one dependent on a single one.
And everyone in the room has agency.

The headlines may be noisy. The opportunity is global… and the signal is there if we choose to look for it.

Leadership in an uncertain industry: from the floor

Supply-chain vulnerability, cost pressure, AI and uncertainty dominated a wide-ranging leadership panel at the Sustainability Summit, but one theme kept returning; trust.

With Dr Mina Rauk, Anna-Pamela Faye Freeman, Dr Adriana Kietzieske-Menkold, Jean-Christophe Hebert, Andrea Rothmayer and Christian Bardoff, the discussion explored how pharma can use data and AI for predictive maintenance, testing and greater efficiency without losing human judgement. Sharing data could unlock further gains, but only where IP, data quality, confidentiality and governance are protected.

The same principle applies to people. As Faye Freeman put it, there is “no normal” after COVID. Leaders need to communicate, listen, upskill and bring their teams with them through change. Cultural differences matter too: there is no single right way to lead.

The message on sustainability was equally pragmatic: embed it early, rather than treating it as an additional cost.
Looking ahead, the panel called for better management of uncertainty, stronger partnerships and faster collaboration.

Perhaps the simplest message: don’t just talk about partnership. Trust it, and use it.

Regional perspectives on sustainability

Can regionalisation strengthen resources rather than simply duplicate them? And can sustainability constraints become drivers for change?

These were among the questions explored in Mapping the Supply Chain: Regional Perspectives on Sustainability with Ximena Stawsky (Merck), Beatrice Eccidio (Zentiva), Jose-Francisco Vallejo-Carrera Sanofi) and moderator - Mary Poddar (3Degrees).

One compelling example was Merck’s recyclable plastic box, made using plastic waste recovered from the oceans and tested in two Spanish hospitals. The results have been phenomenal, raising the question of what could happen if solutions like this were scaled up more widely.

But scaling requires balance: navigating regulation while continuing to deliver safe, affordable medicines to every patient, every day. The panel also stressed the importance of looking beyond Tier 1. Water scarcity, for example, may represent a much greater risk further upstream.

Perhaps the strongest takeaway was simple: we often perceive constraints as risks, but they can also be drivers.
And the panel ended the discussion with this: Sustainability is a team sport… requiring strong relationships, trust, transparency and, above all, action.

Sustainability as a catalyst for change

Sustainability is often framed as a challenge for organisations to solve. But what if change starts much closer to home?

A fireside reality-check discussion on The Advocate for the Enabler with moderator Carly Santer (Sustainable Healthcare Coalition), and Nic Hunt (Nelipak) and Magnus Blomberg (AstraZeneca / BridgeHouse) explored how individual choices can become organisational action… and ultimately contribute to wider societal change.
There is a huge amount of positive energy already beneath the surface. The challenge is to lean in: to share the stories, give people permission to get involved and help them feel part of something bigger.

Personal choices can prompt bigger questions about how businesses operate. But meaningful progress also requires collaboration across entire value chains, particularly on Scope 3 emissions. Innovation, investment and supportive policy will be needed to move solutions from pilot to scale.

Data and targets matter, but emotion, purpose and the prospect of a liveable planet can be more powerful catalysts for action. As will recognising the urgency of the climate situation and the harsh reality of targets and timescales.

But perhaps the biggest shift is recognising that innovation is not just about technology: it can be about changing the business model itself.

Positive pressure: how clients and suppliers can move the needle on emissions reduction

Sometimes pressure is a good thing.

Rob Williams (AstraZeneca) and Hywel Woolf (Sharp Services) offered a great working example of what happens when customer and supplier put a little positive pressure on each other… and turn sustainability commitments into something real.

Targets backed from the top have changed the way they work together: specifications are changing, data is being shared, teams are connecting earlier and suppliers are becoming part of the solution.

And it’s working. Scope 1 and 2 emissions are coming down. Scope 3 is harder – nobody controls the whole supply chain – so the answer is to be open about the challenge and tackle it together.
There was a refreshing simplicity to the approach. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Find what works. Connect the right people. Make it better. Keep learning. Inspire and enact.

And an industry learn? With 2030 getting closer, sustainability can’t simply be passed up or down the supply chain.

Day 1 has already been a blur! Don't let the queues intimidate you - security is swift and before you know it, you're met with a whirlwind of collaboration and networking. We can't wait to see what the day brings!

Day 0 

The day has finally arrived! The whole team is on-site, we're checking in with AV, swapping USBs, and ticking off our massive to-do list one-by-one. It's great to be back at the Fiera Milano, and we can't wait to update you on everything happening on the showfloor. 

Stay tuned!