Paris, 24th January 2019: Pharmapack Europe (February 6-7th, Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, Paris) has released a ‘European drug delivery and packaging’ report, ahead of the event’s opening which highlights, major challenges and opportunities for the industry in the year ahead.
The report forecasts there to be increased innovation by smaller companies across Europe, as industry leaders and executives prepare to meet at Europe’s biggest pharma packaging and drug delivery event. The primary drivers for the rise in innovation were attributed to an overall increase in biologics, which is bringing investment into newer drug delivery systems such as auto injectors, and the opening up of digital technologies across the internet of medical things (IoMT) and connected devices.
In Europe, emphasised by Pharmapack’s own Innovation Gallery, a large number of smaller and highly agile firms are developing these more specialised and consumer friendly technologies. However, many of the report’s experts tempered excitement with the acknowledgment that there still remains a big scale-up gap between promising prototypes and commercial products. As a result, what we will likely see is the larger drug delivery manufacturers and pharma companies scouring these new innovation hubs for licensing partners and acquisitions. Ultimately, these new combinations of small and large companies should help accelerate and enable ground-breaking technologies to reach the patient without becoming slowed by scale-up challenges or regulatory approvals.
The report also included the first ever ‘drug delivery innovation’ rankings, with a clear tier-one of European nations emerging – with Germany heading the rankings narrowly followed by France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Globally the rankings were headed by Japan and the United States.
Another key market trend are new delivery technologies to help patients self-administer drugs – such as pre-filled, needle-free delivery – and smart applications that help the patients monitor dosing and time of delivery.
Forroova added: We have witnessed first-hand more pharma and medical device companies specifically coming to Pharmapack Europe to explore what the next wave of clinical developments are, and to discover new innovations. So, while the last two years have been a golden period for FDA approvals, with record numbers achieved, the next five years are expected to be the golden period of innovation for drug delivery and packaging across Europe. What is most exciting about all these changes, when looked at collectively, is that there is an increasing diversification of the types of companies, types of professionals, and collaborations in the industry driving innovation forward. Other industries have clearly shown that when an open-access approach to new technologies is taken, transformational changes are often quick to follow. It really is an exciting time to be hosting the industry here in Paris.”
