CPhI Pharma Evolution Adds Stellar Names to Expert Industry Panel

CPhI Worldwide, organised by UBM Live, and CPhI Pharma Evolution have announced a full expert industry panel list ahead of the publication of a forward looking annual report examining future contingencies for the pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, the panel has already contributed to the first CPhI Pharma Evolution monthly report examining the current trends in ‘Formulation and Ingredients’, such as issues relating to growth of the market, development of tablets, QbD, PAT, bioavailability, outsourcing, dissolution and stability.

Each panel member has been individually chosen following an exhaustive selection process involving industry peers and journalists to ensure that the panel has the appropriate expertise to independently and holistically examine global trends. In total, CPhI now has 13 world-renowned experts, covering the entire pharmaceutical supply chain from R&D through to finished products, regulatory requirements and economic implications.

Featured on the panel will be Piramal’s pharma sector lead Vijay Shah — spanning three divisions Pharma Solutions, Critical Care and Lab Diagnostics — who has over two decades of experience and has overseen many business transformations. The Indian giant Piramal is transitioning from its traditional roots in contract and generics manufacturing towards the development of NCEs. This step change approach has marked a seismic shift from West to East, as increasingly companies like Piramal start to challenge the traditional big pharma developers of drugs and begin to sell IP protected products into western markets.

Joining Shah will be PWC’s Director of healthcare practice Sam Venugopal, who has over 15 years’ experience across biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, with expertise that spans quality systems, regulatory compliance and supply chain activities.

Mark Carver, Senior Vice President, Research, Development & Innovation at Fujifilm Diosynth, also joins the panel and will bring a wealth of experience in the development of innovative technologies, particularly in relation to scalable and validated manufacturing processes. His industry acumen and knowledge spans 20 years of work on recombinant protein products based on microbial expression in bacterial, yeast and filamentous fungal systems.

Prabir Basu, formerly of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education (NIPTE), will direct the panel’s attention towards how the industry can look to increase innovation. As the development of new compounds come to market, it is important that development and manufacturing techniques keep pace with the changing landscape of drug targets. He has spent the last 10 years heading the NIPTE and is a renowned expert in looking at the future challenges in drug manufacturing and R&D.

Secretary-General of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance and an expert on the Indian and worldwide regulatory landscape, Dilip Shah will provide insights into the future landscape and implications for pharmaceutical companies of potential changes. His experience spans over 45 years and through his consultancy practice (Vision) he works with some of the world’s leading companies looking at strategic planning.

Emil Ciurczak provides an extensive range of pharmaceutical acumen across spectroscopy, PAT and QbD, having introduced NIR Spectroscopy consulting and written over 200 technical papers. He has also previously been a member of the FDA’s PAT committee and is currently President of Doramaxx Consulting.

The panel will be completed by William Botha, a respected trainer and mentor in manufacturing. He is fluent in FDA regulations, including GDP and GMP and has taught an aseptic processing course for the PDA (The Pharmacists' Defence Association) and a quality systems course for the AAMI (Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation).

For the remainder of 2013, members of the panel will take part in short monthly reports entitled ‘CPhI Pharma insight series’, examining topical issues across the themes: R&D; Manufacturing; Packaging & Distribution; Regulatory Compliance; Contract Services & Supply Chain Management; and QA/QC.

The ultimate goal of the panel’s inception is to utilise their respective areas of expertise to scrutinise how the industry will change across the coming 5–10 years in an annual report. The report will feature a mixture of primary industry surveys and collection of in depth essays from panel members, with experts given carte blanche to prophesise how the industry will look and operate in the future from both an economic and practical perspective.

CPhI Worldwide, cphi@ubm.com / Pharma Evolution, www.pharmaevolution.com.