The trade fair CPHI & PMEC India started on 29^th November 2022 to unlock new business opportunities. The event was for three days (29^th, 30^th Nov & 1^st Dec) and organized by Informa Markets at the India Expo Centre, Greater Noida, Delhi NCR with Oceanic Pharmachem Pvt Ltd as a welcome partner, and Indian Pharma Post, Express Pharma, Pharma Industrial India, Indian Pharmacist, Chemical Weekly, Microbiz India, Pharma Machines & Technology, Pharmabiz, Global Business Reports, PMPS and PharmaShots as Media Partners. All the days were full of networking, connections, and learning.

The event started with the CPhI Pharma Connect Congress on Nov 28, 2022. The event brought stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry on a single platform to discuss, deliberate, and share their thoughts on achieving the next phase of growth in pharma. 

CPHI was more than an exhibition facilitated by events and online matchmaking tools to build networking. The exhibitors included companies from various domains incl. Active Pharmaceutical, Generic APIs, biopharmaceuticals, lab equipment, packaging materials, etc. The India Pavilion (Pharmexcil) was focussed on introducing startups. PharmaShots has made a detailed analysis of the different sectors of companies that came as exhibitors in CPHI 2022.

Day 1
The Day 1 of the conference was full of exhibitors and visitors. The day started with the grand inauguration ceremony by Dr. Veeramani SV, Vice-chairman of Pharmexcil, Alessandro Liberatori, Director, Italian Trade Commissions, AVPS Chakravarthi, Ambassador – World Packaging Organisation & board member, Pharmexcil, Bodh Raj Sikri, Chairman, Federation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs, Margaret Ma, President & CEO Informa Markets Asia, Chris Eve, Executive Vice President, Informa Markets Asia, Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, Informa Markets in India, Rahul Deshpande, Senior Group Director, Informa Markets in India, and Ranjith Paul, Group Director, Informa Markets in India.

This year the trade fair witnessed ~40,000 visitors and >1,500 exhibitors showcasing 5000+ products across 100,000+ sq m of exhibition space with representation from over 80 + countries. Some of the exhibitors included Merck, Shah TC, Fette Compacting, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Optimus, Lonza Capsules, IMCD, Elmach, etc.

One of the main attractions of the event was the booth by West Bengal Chemical Industries and Eskag Pharma. Their booth was presented as a Hawa Mahal Theme stall for discussing the business associations. The company representatives were traditionally dressed to promote Indian culture.

Apart from this Day, 1 was engaged with other events which included:

Indian Pharma Awards 

• The 9^th edition of India Pharma Awards. The India Pharma Awards recognized brands for their excellence and innovation in the pharmaceutical space, bringing together thought leaders to celebrate companies’ contributions to the industry. 
• India Pharma Awards is one of the most transparent & process-driven awards which is conducted professionally as well as methodically to draw out the best in the industry, and it stands as an opportunity to position the brand with the best in the Pharmaceutical space.

The Jury members for the awards were:

• 1. Dr. Sunil Bambarkar , MD, Gattefossé Pharmaceuticals India Pvt. Ltd.
• 2. Ranga Iyer, Healthcare Consultant
• 3. Dr. Ajit Dangi, President & CEO of Danssen Consulting
• 4. Subodh Priolkar, CEO, Wincoat Colours & Coatings Private Limited
• 5. Bhalchandra Barve, Joint Managing Director, Blue Cross Laboratories
• 6. Sudarshan Jain, Secretary General, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA)

The awards were distributed as:

Exhibitor Showcase

• The event was the exhibitor showcase which included presentations from different speakers. Day 1 included presentations from 
• Mr. Yasuhiro Sensho, Director, Sensho-Gumi Co Ltd presented on ‘Strengthening the Indo-Japan partnership in the pharmaceutical supply chain’ 
• The next in the presentation was Dr. Sanjit Singh Lamba, CEO of, Biocuris who moderated a panel discussion on the changing global dynamics & opportunities for enhancing India’s pharma exports with panel members - Suresh Pathak, CEO, of GLS Pharma, Dr. Kashish Aziz, Vice President Quality, Unicure India Ltd., and Vickram Srivastava, Head Global Supply Chain, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd at the Pharma Pre-Connect Congress. 
• Day 1 continued with the panel discussion led by Dr. Rajeev Raghuvanshi, Secretary-cum-Scientific Director, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, MoHFW, Govt. of India. 

The panelists for the session were:

• Dr. Shubhadeep D Sinha, MD, FCGP, Dip. Diab., PGDID, Fell. Diabetes, Senior Vice-President & Medical Director at HeteroDr. 
• Akshay Kant Chaturvedi, Executive Director, Shivalik Rasayan Ltd
• Joachim Galand, International Advisor, Wallonia Exports & Investment Agency

The topic of the session was ‘Paving the pathway for innovation in pharma R&D’

• Next in line was the presentation from Dr. Ralph Tettey-Amlalo, MD - HG&H Pharmaceuticals (Pty) Ltd. He spoke about the Zembrin®: An Ancient Botanical with Modern Applications for Mental Wellness
• The series of presentations continued with Sarah Lechat, Global Marketing Manager at Merck Life Science who shared her perspective on ‘The new era of process chemicals: From sustainable detergents to high-quality enzymes’

Mr. Falgun Jani, Head of Sales India, Freudenberg Medical, and Mr. Rudi Gall, VP of Business Development SC EMEA, shared insights on how Freudenberg Medical has introduced New Products for Biopharma & Pharma Industry

CEO Roundtable

This was another insightful event at the CPHI 2022. A closed-door CEO Roundtable has been extremely successful as a strategic gathering of CEOs of leading Pharma and Biopharma companies who shared their deep-dive thoughts and discussions on pharma developments in India. The event was an incisive meeting that showed the next phase of Indian Pharmaceuticals.

The roundtable was very well led by Sriram Shrinivasan, an Expert in our Healthcare and Performance Improvement practices. Some of the main leads of the event were:

• Vivek Sehgal, Co-Founder at Echt Beauti
• Yugal Sikri, Managing Director at RPG Life Sciences
• Prashant Nagre, Managing Director at Fermenta Biotech Ltd
• Suresh Pathak, CEO & Managing Director at GLS PHARMA LTD
• O P Singh, Group CEO at Akums
• Dr. Sanjit Singh Lamba, CEO, and Founder at Biocuris
• Chakravarthi AVPS, Global Ambassador - World Packaging Organisation
• Florin Müller, Head of Swiss Business Hub India
• Shankar Gupta, Chief Group Sales Officer at ACG World
• Rajesh Madan, Executive Director at Medicamen Biotech Limited

The key takeaways were around the importance of focusing on R&D in India and the need for regulatory changes to make the new product approval process smoother.

Day 1 of CPHI & PMEC India was a great success! 

Days 2 & 3

The next two days were also full of exhibitors and speakers. The exhibitor showcase on the next day had eminent speakers who shared their insights. The key highlights of the session included:

The first session was from Dr. Jaywant Pawar, Business Development Manager, Polymer Solutions who shared insights on SCHOTT TOPPAC® infuse: Solving the challenges of IV drugs.

The next in line was the session moderated by Dr. Amrish Chandra, Patent Attorney, and Professor, Amity University Noida. The panelists for the session were:

• Mr. Namit Joshi, Regional Commercial
• Dr. Appaji PV Ex-Director General, Pharmexcil 

‘Growth in API Manufacturing and Exports in India’ was the topic for discussion. The session focused on the rising prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), the presence of several medium to large API manufacturers, and the increasing focus of the government on the development of the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector are some of the factors that are boosting the country’s API market.
The next was the panel discussion on ‘Sustainability in Pharma’. The moderator for the event was Pushpa Vijayaraghavan, Director, Sathguru Management Consultants.

The panelist for the session were:

• Appasaheb Kabadagi, Head Site Operations, Alembic
• Abhijit Sharma, Senior Program Officer, PATH 
• Udit Mangal, Vice President Of Business Development, Pluss Technologies Pvt Ltd 

The highlights of the session were focused on Sustainability & Indian Pharma: 360 degree focus

The discussion was on how Sustainability has emerged as a pervasive priority across the pharmaceutical value chain. Indian industry is no exception and the quest for sustainability is being pursued by corporate leaders across functions. 

The next in line was the presentation of Dr. Varun Gupta from J B Khokhani & Co. who focused on Wide-Ranging Physiological Relevance – Building “Bone Bank” & overcoming inflammaging

The day continued with the presentation of Sven Borchert Product Specialist QControl, Pharma Technology who shared insights on 100% Inspection of Content Uniformity by the CU-120 Inspection Machine.

The exhibitor showcase ended with the presentation of Dr. Moritz Perschied, Sr. Scientist, LGC Standards GmbH, Germany with an insightful talk on ‘Qualification of working standards – best practice, considering Analytical Quality by Design (AQbD), Analytical Target Profile (ATP), and Total Measurement Uncertainty (TMU)’

Days 2 & 3 ended with the hope to look forward to CPHI & PMEC next year!

CPHI & PMEC is and has been a great initiative and an exciting opportunity to embrace today’s technology to connect during these difficult times. Staying connected is vital in a continuously changing industry where new insights and perspectives are more valuable than ever. The three days conference brought together different experts from the pharma industry giving a competitive advantage to business professionals.
Related Post: Exclusive Coverage: Key Takeaways from the 6th Annual Medical Device Regulatory Quality Summit 2022