As the most comprehensive event in the pharma world, CPhI Worldwide serves as a sort of barometer for understanding trends in the entire industry. This year’s event, held in Madrid, was no exception.
Here are some of the main points we gathered from lectures and meetings with CEOs and other leaders:
Softening the patent plummet: Companies haven’t hit an innovation rock bottom just because their products fell off the patent cliff. There are still significant opportunities for innovation — including product development, process development, and new delivery mechanisms and devices. Proof of this progress was evident all throughout the show floors.
Pharma needs to be less conservative: Pharma frontrunners are looking to be bolder and more proactive in the way they embrace new technologies and processes, especially digitalization. This is going to be increasingly important as the biopharma sector explores new territories with gene and cell therapies.
The ongoing image problem: The importance of the industry communicating its value and helping educate patients is still paramount.
Patient-centric manufacturing: Drugmakers are more frequently using patient feedback to aid drug development. Thus, pharma manufacturing is becoming a more personalized industry, where drugs are designed with the patient in mind from the start.
Integrating small and large molecules: This year’s show brought with it the inaugural launch of bioLIVE, filling the large molecule gap that has existed in past events. Several speaker sessions highlighted the developments within the biologics supply chain, as well as the rise of biosimilars, and cell and gene therapies.
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