CPHI Barcelona 2023 – Event preview

CPHI Barcelona, the renowned global pharma event, is set to take centre stage from 24 to 26 October 2023 at Fira Barcelona Gran Via, Spain. Building on its legacy of excellence, this year’s event promises to unite suppliers, innovators, and pharma professionals in an exceptional setting, combining the best of in-person and online experiences. CPHI creates connections and inspires partnerships across the global pharma community.

READ THE PREVIEW HERE

Uniting the global supply chain

CPHI Barcelona serves as a vital platform for unrivalled networks and access to the global supply chain. It provides unparalleled opportunities to source valuable partnerships, secure contracts, and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving industry. Whether you’re seeking to forge relationships with thought leaders, trailblazers, or innovators, this event has it all.

A unique blend of in-person and online experiences:

CPHI Barcelona presents a unique opportunity to learn, procure, and connect with events that inspire innovation and drive change. By seamlessly blending the benefits of both digital and in-person formats, attendees develop relationships all year round.

The Event Planner is a web and app tool that allows you to plan your time at the event in advance, making your time at CPHI Barcelona more effective. Attendees can plan meetings, bookmark interesting exhibitions and products, and receive personalised recommendations from AI regarding products, exhibitions and relevant content sessions. The app also contains all event essentials in one place, including your event badge and personal schedule. This maximises your efficiency and enjoyment while reducing event stress.

Not only is the Event Planner useful for pre‑event planning, it can also be used during and after the event. You can navigate through the event using the interactive floor plan to find the exhibits that you bookmarked ahead of time, while receiving notifications about your schedule to track meetings and sessions. Once the event is finished, you can export the contact information of the connections you made for easy follow-up calls.

So, dive into the immersive event platform before the in-person event, engage with the vibrant CPHI Barcelona community, and plan your experience early. Then, at Fira Barcelona, navigate the event effortlessly through intuitive zones, attend pre-scheduled 1:1 meetings, connect with exhibitors on-the-fly, and explore seminars while sourcing new suppliers.

Credit: CPHI

What’s new for 2023?

This year, CPHI Barcelona introduces The Start‑Up Market, a dedicated space in Hall 3 of Fira Barcelona, where start-ups, innovators, and small enterprises from the industry can exhibit their exciting new products and solutions. The Start-Up Market is the space to visit to discover new innovations and connect with companies at the cutting edge of the pharma industry. Eligible companies classified as start-ups and active in the pharma, biopharma, digital, or medical device sectors can exhibit. The market space offers various benefits, including promotion as a show feature, access to start-up mentors, and a dedicated start-up networking lounge.

Commitment to sustainability and social responsibility

CPHI Barcelona is committed to organising an environmentally and socially responsible event. Efforts are being made to reduce the environmental impact, including sustainable transportation and shuttle services, the use of 100 percent renewable energy, and implementing initiatives to minimise single-use exhibitor stands. The event aims to support local businesses, empower communities, inspire sustainable development by celebrating initiatives through The Sustainability Award, and amplifying diverse voices through forums and events.

Silvia Forroova, Director of partnerships & sustainability, Informa Markets, commented: “We are very excited to be back in Barcelona, one of Europe’s premier biotech and pharma manufacturing hubs. This year, the event will return to its former size and is designed to inspire innovation and drive change in the pharma industry. In the post-pandemic era, it’s exciting to see so many new products in clinical development and companies looking to widen and diversify their networks.

There has never been a better time to attend CPHI. At the heart of pharma, we provide the vital connections that will underpin growth in pharma manufacturing in the next few years. Alongside this, we are committed to accelerating our progress in sustainability. Sustainability is embedded throughout CPHI, from our Better Stands programme to reduce waste, through to our conference content, where we are bringing industry leaders together to inspire and create conversation through a number of sessions dedicated to various aspects of sustainability.”

Conference agenda highlights

CPHI Barcelona 2023 will feature an extensive conference agenda covering a wide range of topics, including next-gen biomanufacturing, partnering for success, formulating the future, future therapies, manufacturing 4.0, patient‑centric development, creating a circular economy, quality management fundamentals, and hiring for diversity. These sessions will provide valuable insights and help shape the future of the industry.

The power of CPHI Barcelona extends beyond the event dates. With the event platform and CPHI Online, you can access on-demand conference content, stay connected with the CPHI community throughout the year, and fuel the growth of your business.

Day 1 

Tuesday 24 October

Day One at CPHI Barcelona focuses on the themes Next-Gen Biomanufacturing, Formulating the Future, Partnering for Success, and Creating a Circular Economy. Sheila Ann Mikhail, co-founder and former CEO of Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, Inc sets the scene for the biomanufacturing landscape with a keynote address.

The day also features two panels: Strategies for Commercialising Cell and Gene Therapies and Looking to the Future – What’s Next for the Generic Drugs Market. The first panel will consist of three speakers: Anders Wallstron, Xbrane Biopharma AB; Unmesh Lal, Frost & Sullivan; and Magnus Blomberg, AstraZeneca. It will cover topics such as manufacturing challenges for autologous cell therapies and cell therapy roadmaps to address challenges and drive speed-to-market.

The second panel will be presented by Camille Dumont, Lonza Capsules and Health Ingredients, Juan Colberg, Pfizer, and Sven Stegemann, Leibniz JointLab. It will tackle the issue of shortages utilising fresh formulation approaches and driving quality improvements through process control optimisation.
Following the panel, there will be sessions on the themes Partnering for Success and Creating a Circular Economy. Vinay Saluja, Novartis, will give a keynote and provide a detailed appraisal on CDMO landscape. A second speaker will provide insights on Sustainability in Pharma.

Day 2 

Wednesday 25 October

The themes introduced on Day Two of CPHI Barcelona are Future Therapies, Manufacturing 4.0, Patient Centric Development, and Quality Management Fundamentals. Aser Alonso, Vice President engineering & transformation, GE Healthcare, starts us off with a keynote address for drug manufacturing.

There will be a groundbreaking panel in the afternoon delving into the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) as a technology to transform manufacturing efficiency, which is another topic generating much industry excitement. Entitled Loading Potential: Artificial Intelligence for Pharma Manufacturing, four speakers will cover the implications of AI for improving batch manufacturing processes, defining the role of chatbots, and even potential improvements in patient engagement. This panel will include speakers Andrew Kewson of Basilea Pharmaceutica, Guglielmo Iozzia from Merck, Sean Daughtry of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Aurelio Arias from IQVIA.

Samantha Parker, Chief Patient Access Officer, Innoskel, will pick up the second half of the day with a keynote address on Patient Centric Landscape, while Elisabeth Stampa, President, Medicines for Europe, gives a keynote address on Quality Management Fundamentals.

The evening will conclude with a panel on Industry 4.0 – Setting the New Standard for Manufacturing Quality, with speakers Lawrence De Belder, Pharmatech Associates Inc., Isamir Martinez, ACS Green Chemistry Institute, Danita Broyles, Harmony Biosciences, and Sanjay Sharma from Dr Reddy’s. The panel will cover how to make data actionable to improve decision-making and real-world automation, identifying the right Enterprise Resource Planning system for supply chains and manufacturing processes, and establishing measurable KPIs.

Day 3 

Thursday 26 October

There will be a Sustainability workshop in the morning of Day three. Conference sessions will explore manufacturing challenges and solutions for novel modalities. Adam Brown, Associate Professor of Biopharmaceutical Engineering at University of Sheffield will present new approaches for designing bioproduction systems that are fit for the manufacture of complex, engineered next-generation products and João Henrique Santos, Downstream Processing Scientist at Polpharma Biologics will explore optimisation of bispecific antibodies downstream processing.