CPHI Milan Names 2026 Pharma Awards Finalists

The list of finalists for the 2026 CPHI Pharma Awards was announced on September 1, 2026,1 drawing from hundreds of submissions across 15 categories that track where drug development, manufacturing, and supply chain innovation are heading. Winners will be announced October 6 at a networking reception opening CPHI Milan, which runs October 6–8. In a press release,1 Tara Dougal, CPHI event director at Informa Markets, called this year's field a marker of rising ambition across the industry, noting that finalists are “setting new standards across the board.”

API Development and Innovation finalists include Lonza's GlycoConnect dual-payload antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology; Cambrex's automated liquid-phase peptide synthesis platform; FUJIFILM Biotechnologies' ShunzymeX; and MODAG’s Combined neurodegeneration platform involving PD DETECT and Emrusolmin. These nominees showcase continued investment in complex modality manufacturing, particularly ADCs and peptides.

The Manufacturing Excellence category is a direct read on process innovation: Anemocyte's enzymatic messenger RNA (mRNA) manufacturing technology; IMA SpA's DOMINA tableting platform; Lyo Innovation's mass spectrometry-based lyophilization tracking; Bespak Bio's next-generation gene therapy manufacturing technology; and Touchlight's GMP-licensed cell-free DNA facility. Touchlight's platform also appears in the Sustainable Pharma Excellence category and its Cell-free Doggybone DNA (dbDNA) platform is listed in theInnovation Catalyst category, underscoring how its repurposed-infrastructure, smaller-footprint approach to cell-free DNA production is resonating across multiple judging lenses this year.

Digital Transformation finalists reflect the industry's push toward AI-enabled operations: Catalent's Qai Deviation Manager for enterprise quality workflows; Peerox’s MADDOX AI troubleshooting layer for packaging shopfloor operators; Evonik's self-driving labs; ForgeStop’s supply chain authentication platform; Adalvo’s digital transformation engine; and 4G Clinical’s digital clinical supply chain control system.

Supply Chain Excellence finalists include Cryoport Systems' ISO 21973 certification work in cold chain logistics; Almac Group's Adapt platform for ultra-rare gene therapy supply chains; LSPedia's OneScan traceability tool; Occam Systems data-driven strategy; and Adalvo’s supply chain planning efforts. These finalists are managing increasingly complex, temperature-sensitive, and serialized product flows.

Sustainability runs through several categories. In Sustainable Pharma Excellence, Nordic Bioproducts Group's AaltoCell microcrystalline cellulose, SCHOTT Pharma’s circular vial packaging, and SK Pharmteco's circular acetonitrile recovery framework each target resource efficiency in manufacturing inputs and packaging. In addition, Sunresin New Materials is featured for its polymer resin technology, Bloomage Biotechnology is nominated for its sodium chondroitin sulfate, and Celtic Renewables’ green chemistry is highlighted. The separate Sustainable Transformation Partnership category recognizes cross-industry collaboration, with Sartorius, AstraZeneca, Schneider Electric, and the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative all shortlisted for decarbonization and circular bioprocessing efforts.

Innovation in Drug Delivery, Devices and Packaging finalists include LTS Lohmann's AccuTip microneedle array platform and ForgeStop’s NFC- and secure-chip-based track-and-trace authentication, which is an area of growing regulatory and anti-counterfeiting relevance for manufacturers. Eco-Inject is nominated for its sustainable autoinjector; Palladio Group is nominated for its Smart Pill Pocket; and NVV Pharma is nominated for its earwax impaction medical device.

Beyond technology categories, the awards recognize individual and organizational leadership: CEO of the Year finalists include Adalvo's Anil Okay, SK Pharmteco's Joerg Ahlgrimm, and Biocon's Shreehas Tambe, among others, while Future Leader and Woman of the Year categories spotlight rising talent from organizations including Pfizer CentreOne, DFE Pharma, and Bristol Myers Squibb.

The 2026 awards are sponsored by IQVIA, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), and the Taiwan Pharmaceutical Alliance. For manufacturing and contract development and manufacturing professionals attending CPHI Milan, the finalist list offers a useful preview of which technologies and companies are drawing industry-wide recognition this year. The awards ceremony itself is open to all registered attendees on the show's opening evening.

The full list of finalists is as follows:

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 Biomintetic 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” by Kepler Healthcare
• 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 
• FUJIFILMBiotechnologies: 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: Manufacturing technology
• IMA SpA’s DOMINA: 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 of 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 of Crystec
• Jakub Knurek of Mabion
• Milena Gonakova of Pfizer CentreOne
• Dr Sean McMahon of Ashland
• Dr Pauline van der Wijst-Janssen of DFE Pharma.

Woman of the Year

• Emma Charles of Bristol Myers Squibb
• Jennifer Gattari of Pfizer CentreOne
• Lorna Murtagh of Pfizer CentreOne
• Maja Pedersen of FUJIFILM Biotechnologies
• Martina Feitzinger of Adalvo
• Zhao Yan of Bloomage Biotechnology.

CEO of the Year

• Anil Okay of Adalvo
• Joerg Ahlgrimm of SK pharmteco
• Julia Tsetis of Tsetis Group
• Prashant Nagre of Fermenta Biotech
• Shreehas Tambe of Biocon
• Swapn Malpani of Cipla
• Michael Kocher of Xellia Pharmaceuticals
• Zhao Yan of Bloomage Biotechnology.

Reference

1. CPHI Milan Pharma Awards 2026 Finalists Announced. Press release. Informa Markets. September 1, 2026.