CPHI Milan Pharma Awards 2026 Finalists Announced

Milan, Italy - September 1st, 2026 - Informa Markets has today announced the finalists for the CPHI Pharma Awards 2026, recognising outstanding achievements across companies and individuals pushing the boundaries of science and technology to advance global healthcare.

The CPHI Pharma Awards shortlist for 2026 celebrates 15 categories, spotlighting individuals and companies in drug development, digital transformation, supply chain, manufacturing, sustainability, partnerships and leadership. 

Tara Dougal, CPHI Event Director, Informa Markets said: “We’ve been incredibly impressed by the quality, originality, and ambition of this year’s submissions. Across every category, the finalists are setting new standards across the board. The CPHI Pharma Awards are a vital platform to spotlight the progress shaping the future of our industry, and we’re looking forward to celebrating these achievements and announcing the winners on the opening day of CPHI Milan.”

The winners will be revealed during a networking reception on October 6 – the opening day of CPHI Milan, which runs from October 6-8.  

Finalists by Category

The full list of 2026 finalists is available by category below. Further information on each finalist can be found:

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 

• 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: Manufacturing technology

• IMA SpA’s DOMINA: DOMINA - Master of tabletting 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.

This year’s awards are sponsored by IQVIA, a global provider of clinical research services, commercial insights and healthcare intelligence to the life sciences and healthcare industries; Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI); and Taiwan Pharmaceutical Alliance. 

The CPHI Pharma Awards event is open to all at CPHI Milan. Register to attend the show here.