Global confidence in drug delivery innovation remains at record highs say Pharmapack

The annual Pharmapack Drug Delivery Innovation Index* is released ahead of Europe’s premier drug delivery and packaging event, Pharmapack Europe 2024 (January 24/25th) – held at the Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles (Hall 7.2). The results showed a slight increase on the record scores seen in the 2023 survey, indicative of a continued resurgence in confidence and innovation across pharma R&D.

The Index [scored out of ten] is a collateralised metric of drug delivery and device innovation across the major pharma nations. Significantly for industry prospects in 2024, the index rose very slightly to 7.45 up from a previous record score 7.44 in 2023. With the majority of countries maintaining or seeing slight falls in year-on-year scores, France was easily the Index’s biggest mover (+11%) rising to fourth in the rankings with Germany supplanting its perennial rival, the USA, to lead the rankings in 2024.

The results of the Pharmapack Index are widely seen as a key measure of industry confidence for the year ahead and point to renewed device innovation in 2024 – with all European nations preforming strongly.

Emphasizing the shift, more than 5,000 attendees and over 370 companies are expected at Pharmapack Europe, with the event seeing a notable rise in early stage companies attending during the last year – with its Start-Up Hub now boasting over 20 companies. In fact, the event is widely seen as hotbed of future innovation and will host the eponymous Pharmapack Awards, Learning Labs and Innovation Tours – all of which are designed to showcase promising technologies and empower greater collaborative development.”

“After a record attendance at CPHI Barcelona, the Pharmapack Index – which is a measure of drug delivery R&D confidence – has retained its record strength and there is a great deal of excitement again for partnering, investing and commercialising promising device and packaging innovations. We are already anticipating a record event and most importantly an industry wide resurgence of partnering and novel device development throughout 2024,” commented Laura Indriksone, Brand Manager at Pharmapack Europe.

In a further boon, two Country Pavilions will be launched for Switzerland and this year’s Index star performer, France. The Pavilions were launched in response to high demand.

The top three countries from last year (Germany, USA, and the UK) all maintained their positions with very similar scores, but both France and Italy improved and have now replaced China and India within the top five. The results emphasize an emerging European domination of drug device and packaging innovation, boasting four of the top five nations, and with a European country narrowly supplementing the USA to lead the rankings for the first time.

“Pharmapack is a reflection of the industry and Europe is now collectively the hub of global device and packing innovation. We have designed this year’s event to help harness industry potential, not only for the devices and packaging that will lead the market in 2024, but also so that the industry can learn, share and discover innovations that might move the market over the medium term. With R&D taking many years to complete it’s incredibly important that the community comes together to help accelerate this progress. All across the sector we are seeing a studious and holistic approach to product development – with the industry focussed on real world impacts and life cycle approaches. The passion and dedication to innovation is what makes this show so rewarding to deliver,” added Indriksone

The agenda at Pharmapack will also address many of the current ‘hotbed’ issues in development including the challenges associated with high-volume drugs, high-viscosity medications and how to optimise patient-centric solutions. Moreover, sessions will also explore the rise of prefilled syringes, automatic delivery devices and the evolution of sustainable packaging solutions. In fact, this fusion of innovation is giving rise to packaging innovations designed not only to elevate user experience, but also, contribute to environmental sustainability.