The winners of the CPHI Pharma Awards 2026 have been announced, with companies and individuals across the pharma sector recognised for their innovation and progress.
The 15 categories saw hundreds of entries, with pioneers and trailblazers advancing drug development, transforming manufacturing and championing more sustainable approaches celebrated.
This year’s awards were sponsored by the Industrial Technology Research Institute & Department of Industrial Technology, MOEA, Taiwan Pharmaceutical Alliance and IQVIA.
Winners were revealed on 6 October during the CPHI Celebration at CPHI Milan.
“Every year, the CPHI Pharma Awards allow us to recognise the outstanding work taking place across our industry, and the quality of this year’s entries has been incredibly impressive,” said Tara Dougal, Events Director, Pharma Portfolio at Informa Markets.
With 15 categories recognising achievements ranging from scientific and manufacturing innovation to sustainability and individual leadership, this year’s winners demonstrate the breadth of expertise, innovation and collaboration driving pharma forward.
"Congratulations to all of our winners and finalists.”
The CPHI Pharma Award’s judging panel is a team of global, independent industry experts, specially selected for their knowledge, credentials and objectivity.
Loic Bishop, Global Change Facilitator at BioPhorum, and one of the judges for the 2026 awards, said: “The standard of submissions this year demonstrated both the pace of innovation across pharma and the increasingly collaborative way in which the industry is tackling its biggest challenges."
Selecting the winners required us to look beyond individual achievements and consider the wider impact each entry could have on patients, partners and the future of the sector.
"The strength of the finalists made that an exceptionally difficult task.”
The winners
The winners of each category were the following:
- API Development: MODAG - Combined platform for neurodegeneration: PD DETECT (SAA early diagnostics) & Emrusolmin (disease-modifying therapy)
- Digital Transformation: Evonik - Evonik Self Driving Labs
- Drug Delivery, Devices & Packaging Innovation: ForgeStop - ForgeStop × EM Microelectronic - Secure Connected Packaging for Pharmaceutical Track-and-Trace and Authentication
- Excellence With Purpose: Medical and Pharmaceutical Industry Development Agency, Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan - Making Medicines Affordable in Uzbekistan: Reference Pricing, Digital Monitoring and Public Access
- Finished Formulation: SeraNovo - NanoGlass, a formulation platform for oral BCS IV and bRo5 drugs
- Innovation Catalyst: Touchlight - Touchlight’s cell-free Doggybone DNA (dbDNA) platform
- Manufacturing Excellence: Anemocyte - AMCAP: Evolving the enzymatic mRNA manufacturing
- Supply Chain Excellence: Almac Clinical Services - Zero Margin for Error: Supply Chain Excellence in Ultra-Rare Gene Therapy with Almac Adapt
- Sustainable Pharma Excellence: Celtic Renewables - Leading the green chemical revolution
- Sustainable Transformation Partnership: AstraZeneca - Further Together: Partnering for Systemic Change
- True Partnership Excellence: Aurigene Pharmaceutical Services - Zoliflodacin End-to-End Multiparty Partnership
- Start-Up Initiative: Primogene - Primogene – Cell-Free Enzymatic Biomanufacturing Platform
- Future Leader: Dr Pauline van der Wijst-Janssen, Product Development Manager, DFE Pharma
- Woman of the Year: Emma Charles, Senior Vice President Europe Markets, Bristol Myers Squibb
- CEO of the Year: Anil Okay, Adalvo
