The finalists have been selected from a record-breaking 200+ submissions – nearly double 2016’s total – received from a remarkable 27 countries. The high volume of entries meant that the judging panel evaluated more than 250,000 words, not to mention the supporting documents that many submissions provided. In particular, there was fierce competition within the ‘Product Packaging’ and ‘Drug Delivery and Devices’ categories, receiving over 20 high-quality entries each.

This year’s judging panel of 17 includes many of the industry’s most prominent experts, across a diverse range of subject areas. The panel is chaired by Rita Peters, Editorial Director of Pharmaceutical Technology. The judges worked diligently through a large volume of applicants and unanimously reached an agreed list of finalists for each category. To access this list, please visit: http://awards.cphi.com/finalists/

Tara Dougal, Acting Head of Content at UBM commented, “The pharma industry is extremely competitive and it is important to provide wide recognition to the progress that is made in the industry every year. What was most impressive was the sheer volume of entries we received, and it therefore took us longer than usual to evaluate them all as we gave each entry the attention their efforts merited. I am grateful to all the companies that worked so hard to prepare a submission, as well as the judges for their time and attention, and I would like to congratulate the finalists for their achievements in this prestigious awards programme. We wish them the best of luck.”

The winners will be debated amongst the judges before they are unveiled live at the prestigious CPhI Pharma Awards Gala taking place on 24^th October in Frankfurt, amongst over 250 of the industry’s most important executives and luminaries. To reserve a table for the CPhI Pharma Awards Gala, please visit: http://awards.cphi.com/gala/#book-your-table.

Full list of award judges: Gil Roth (President, PBOA), Gary Norman (Technical Manager, DFE Pharma), Girish Malhotra (President, EPCOT International), Dr. Rene Boomer (General Manager, PharmAccel Consulting), Evonne Brennan (International Technical Marketing Manager, IMCD Ireland), Michael Platscher (Senior Project Manager R&D, Merck & Cie), Dr. Pascale Gauthier (Pharmacist PhD, Head of Course, Faculty of Pharmacy of Clermont-Ferrand), Rita Peters (Editorial Director, Pharmaceutical Technology), Adeline Siew (Editor, Pharmaceutical Technology Europe), Emil Ciurczak (President, Doramaxx Consulting), Dr. Dev Prasad (Senior Scientist in Formulation Development, Fresenius Kabi USA, LLC), Dr. Harsh Chauhan (Assistant Professor, Creighton University), Bikash Chatterjee (President and Chief Scientific Officer, Pharmatech Associates, Inc.), Alan Raymond (Non-Executive Director with Diurnal Ltd., Chairman of Anipoc Ltd., and Interim Chairman of ADC Bio Ltd.), Dan Stanton (Editor, BioPharma Reporter), Ger Standhardt (Manager – Knowledge Development & Projects, NVC Netherlands Packaging Centre) and lastly, Bibiana Campos Seijo (Editor-in-Chief and VP, C&EN and C&EN Media Group).