The finalists for the 2026 CPHI Pharma Awards have been announced, with hundreds of entries received across 15 categories covering innovation, manufacturing, sustainability, digital transformation and leadership.
Organised by Informa Markets, the awards highlight companies, technologies and individuals contributing to developments across the pharmaceutical industry. The 2026 shortlist spans areas ranging from API development and drug delivery to supply chain, manufacturing and sustainable transformation, alongside categories recognising partnerships and individual leadership.
Among the categories are Innovation in Drug Delivery, Devices and Packaging, Digital Transformation, Manufacturing Excellence and Sustainable Pharma Excellence. The shortlist also includes dedicated awards for start-ups, future leaders, women in the industry and CEOs.
Tara Dougal, CPHI Event Director at Informa Markets, said the organisers had been impressed by the quality, originality and ambition of this year’s submissions, adding that the awards provide a platform to highlight developments across the industry.
The winners will be announced during a networking reception on October 6, the opening day of CPHI Milan, which takes place from October 6 to 8.
The 2026 finalists
API Development and Innovation
• MODAG: Combined neurodegeneration platform involving PD DETECT® and Emrusolmin
• Lonza: GlycoConnect® dual-payload antibody-drug conjugate technology
• Cambrex: Automated liquid-phase peptide synthesis platform
• FUJIFILM Biotechnologies: ShunzymeX™
Digital Transformation
• 4G Clinical: Digital Clinical Supply Chain Control for Complex Trials
• Evonik Industries: Self-driving labs
• ForgeStop: ForgeStop Connected Products Platform, NFC Authentication for Pharmaceutical Supply Chains
• Adalvo: Intelligence at Scale: How Adalvo Built an Enterprise-Grade Digital Transformation Engine at the Heart of a Specialist B2B Pharma Business
• Peerox: MADDOX, AI-Driven Knowledge & Troubleshooting Layer Empowering Shopfloor Operators in Pharma Packaging
• Catalent: Qai™ Deviation Manager, AI-Enabled Digital Quality Transformation at Enterprise Scale
Innovation in Drug Delivery, Devices and Packaging
• NVV Pharma: ClearliQ Earwax, a Biomimetic Cerumenolytic Medical Device for Safe Self-Care of Earwax Impaction
• Eco-Inject: Eco-inject Sustainable Autoinjector
• LTS-Lohmann Therapie-System: LTS AccuTip Microneedle Array Patch Platform
• Palladio Group: Smart Pill Pocket
• ForgeStop × EM Microelectronic: Secure Connected Packaging for Pharmaceutical Track-and-Trace and Authentication
Excellence with Purpose
• Kepler Healthcare: Welcome Girl, A Lifelong Noble Initiative
• Strides Pharma Science: Learn While You Earn programme
• Medical & Pharmaceutical Industry Development Agency of Uzbekistan: Making Medicines Affordable in Uzbekistan: Reference Pricing, Digital Monitoring and Public Access
• Urtica: Named patient import when every dose matters
• Accord Healthcare: Hetronifly® (Serplulimab), Expanding Equitable Access to Immunotherapy Through Purpose Driven Collaboration
Finished Formulation
• Cor.Con International: Epilamba Junior
• Santa Farma: Innovative Mirabegron Modified-Release Formulation Platform for First-Generic Overactive Bladder Therapies
• SeraNovo: NanoGlass™, a formulation platform for oral BCS IV and bRo5 drugs
• Ashland: Permexa™ sodium caprate
Innovation Catalyst
• IMA SpA: ASSEMBLA, A Scalable, Device Centric Assembly Platform Enabling End to End Medical Device Industrialisation
• FUJIFILM Biotechnologies: MaruX
• Prolific Machines: Optogenetic Platform Achieves Record-Breaking 21 g/L Antibody Titer
• StablePharma: StablevaX®, Catalysing an Ecosystem of Thermostable Medicines
• Aizon: Operational foundation for GMP AI
• Touchlight: Cell-free Doggybone™ DNA (dbDNA™) platform
• VeriSIM Life: VeriSIM Life
Manufacturing Excellence
• Anemocyte: AMCAP enzymatic mRNA manufacturing technology
• IMA SpA: DOMINA, Master of tableting platform
• Lyo Innovation: LyoinMSTrack® Mass Spectrometry
• Bespak Bio: Next-Generation Gene Therapy Manufacturing Technology
• Touchlight: World’s First GMP-Licensed Cell-Free DNA Facility
Supply Chain Excellence
• Cryoport Systems: Defining Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Excellence Through ISO 21973 Certification
• Adalvo: From Reactive to Resilient: How Adalvo Rebuilt Supply Chain Planning as a Strategic Advantage
• LSPedia: LSPedia OneScan
• Occam Systems: The Data-Driven Strategic Supply Chain Advantage
• Almac Group: Adapt™ platform, Zero Margin for Error: Supply Chain Excellence in Ultra-Rare Gene Therapy with Almac Adapt™
Sustainable Pharma Excellence
• Nordic Bioproducts Group: AaltoCell®, Transforming Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Through Sustainable High-Performance MCC
• Bloomage Biotechnology: Bloomsac™ Sodium Chondroitin Sulfate
• SCHOTT Pharma: Circular Packaging, Delivery of Pharmaceutical Vials in Circular Packaging
• Celtic Renewables: Leading the Green Chemical Revolution
• SK pharmteco: Transforming Solvent Sustainability in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing through a Data-Driven Framework and Circular Acetonitrile Recovery
• Sunresin New Materials: Uniform Functionalized Polymer Resin Technology, Redefining the Concept of Sustainability in Peptide Manufacturing
• Touchlight: World’s First GMP-Licensed Cell-Free DNA Facility, Repurposed Infrastructure and Smaller Manufacturing Footprint
Sustainable Transformation Partnership
• Sartorius: From Suppliers to End Users, Creating a Cross-Industry Partnership for Circular Bioprocessing
• AstraZeneca: Further Together, Partnering for Systemic Change
• Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative: Lead with Purpose, Decarbonize Faster, The PSCI Decarbonization Summit
• Schneider Electric: Pharma collaboration driving supply chain decarbonization
True Partnership Excellence
• CMAC: A world-leading manufacturing research consortium spanning academic and industry partners
• MedPharm: Advancing First-in-Disease Topical Therapies Through Strategic Partnership, MedPharm and Palvella’s Co-Development of QTORIN™ Rapamycin from Concept to Commercial Readiness
• Enzene: From At-Risk to Accelerated, How Enzene Redefines Biologics Development
• Adalvo: More Than a Dossier, How Adalvo Builds True Partnerships on Shared Risk, Shared Reward, and Shared Mission
• Santa Farma: Transforming Complex Local Generics into Global Patient Access
• Aurigene Pharmaceutical Services: Zoliflodacin End-to-End Multiparty Partnership
Start-up Initiative
• SolasCure: Aurase Wound Gel
• NVV Pharma: ClearliQ, How a Dutch SME Disrupted Decades-Old Earwax Care with Biosolvent Science
• Eco-Inject: Eco-Inject Sustainable Autoinjector
• Lambda Biologics: ODISEI, The Organoid-based Discovery Platform for Innovative Screening, Evaluation, and Identification
• Primogene: Primogene, Cell-Free Enzymatic Biomanufacturing Platform
• RAWGA: VC-H1, Plant-based collagen alternative
Future Leader
• Dr Steven Nicholson, Crystec
• Jakub Knurek, Mabion
• Milena Gonakova, Pfizer CentreOne
• Dr Sean McMahon, Ashland
• Dr Pauline van der Wijst-Janssen, DFE Pharma
Woman of the Year
• Emma Charles, Bristol Myers Squibb
• Jennifer Gattari, Pfizer CentreOne
• Lorna Murtagh, Pfizer CentreOne
• Maja Pedersen, FUJIFILM Biotechnologies
• Martina Feitzinger, Adalvo
• Zhao Yan, Bloomage Biotechnology
CEO of the Year
• Anil Okay, Adalvo
• Joerg Ahlgrimm, SK pharmteco
• Julia Tsetis, Tsetis Group
• Prashant Nagre, Fermenta Biotech
• Shreehas Tambe, Biocon
• Swapn Malpani, Cipla
• Michael Kocher, Xellia Pharmaceuticals
• Zhao Yan, Bloomage Biotechnology
The 2026 CPHI Pharma Awards are sponsored by IQVIA, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and Taiwan Pharmaceutical Alliance.
The awards ceremony will take place during CPHI Milan on October 6. CPHI Milan runs from October 6–8 in Milan, Italy.