Barcelona, 13^th October 2023: Ahead of this month’s CPHI Barcelona – the world’s largest pharma event, held at Fira Barcelona (October 24-26^th, 2023) – and CPHI & PMEC India to be held at India Expo Centre, Greater Noida, Delhi NCR (November 28-30) key highlights from the CPHI pharma survey are announced. The full findings will be published at CPHI Barcelona as part of the CPHI Annual Report.

The results will provide a forward-looking steer on pharma bushiness confidence in the year ahead and feature the insights from more than 250 global pharma executives. In line with wider market sentiments, pharma confidence has dipped below the record scores of 2022, but has remained extremely resilient despite wider macro uncertainly.

In fact, the CPHI Pharma Index – a collateralised metric of all small molecule categories in the survey – reported its second highest ever total, just 2.5% down on the 2022 all-time high. This highly positive result highlights the medium-term trajectory of the industry and the underlying strength of market fundamentals.

The United States unsurprisingly remained the top overall ranked nation (when evaluated across all criteria), with India continuing to make year-on-year inroads and looks well placed for significant growth in 2024 – particularly as the country moves from a generic focussed industry to one that increasingly supports global innovators.                                     

In fact, India remained top of the ‘growth category’ for the second year running (scoring 7.8 out of 10) moving further clear of the United States. The country also saw improvements in its score for ‘biologics quality’ and finished only narrowly behind the USA for ‘overall competitiveness’. Consequently, the report predicts India is undergoing an accelerating transformation from a generics hub to an innovation focused pharma economy, driven by the incremental steps of its largest CDMOs. India is also predicted to the see the fastest CAGR in biologicals over in the next 5-years, as it quickly builds a bio CDMO base similar to those we have already seen emerge in China and Korea.

Emphasising the country’s surging industry, next month’s CPHI & PMEC India is anticipated to be the largest ever, with record numbers of international attendees, and Indo-western partnering fuelling demand thanks to the shift toward a ‘China plus one’ strategy. Most startling of all, the report predicts that looking ahead 5-years, we may then be looking at an ‘India plus one’ strategy as the predominant approach.

“When you look collectively at the data points in the Annual Survey, you see that after a reset from record scores in 2022 – when many reported record profits – the industry is now well positioned for growth in 2024,” commented Tara Dougal, Content Director – Pharma.

The report identified that many of the industry’s growth drivers we saw in 2019 are still present, but are now supplemented by the breakthroughs in microbiome therapeutics, mRNA [of course], while AI now looks increasingly likely to drive new efficiencies for the industry over the next 5-years.

Dougal added, “our analysts predict outsourcing will continue its growth trajectory in 2024 and beyond – which is obviously a tremendously positive message for the industry as we approach CPHI Barcelona. It is also why we have ensured that ‘outsourcing strategies’ are a central theme of this year’s content, and the overall takeaway is of quiet and confident optimism. In fact, this will remain an ongoing theme for CPHI content, helping our audience to meet their objectives around partnering and supplier selection year-round.”

CPHI Barcelona will welcome the heart of the pharma to its global meeting later this month, and includes a dedicated track on ‘partnering for success’. The six session track on day 1 will see industry experts debate the most successful approaches for partner criteria, selection and long term planning.