Pharmapack Europe 2023 (February 1-2) opens at Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles (Hall 7.2) with more than 5,500 attendees and over 300 companies expected as a new report and survey points to a dramatic transformation in the industry’s outlook. The Pharmapack 2023 report’s key metric, the Pharmapack Drug Delivery Innovation Index (scored out of ten), has seen a rapid rebound in industry confidence and just eight months after the Index’s first ever fall.
In 2023 the Pharmapack Index reached a new record high score of 7.4, surpassing even pre-pandemic scores. This rapid recovery in the Index from its low point little more than eight months ago, bodes extremely well for device and packaging manufacturers in the year ahead, suggesting a strong global recovery in industry outlook and confidence.
It indicates that industry executives now feel many of the pressures of the last 12 months are easing – with gas prices in Europe stabilising, inflation moving back towards historical norms, and a loosening of parked capital in Private Equity firms and Venture Capitalists, as reported in November 2022’s CPHI Annual Report.
“This is extremely positive news for the attendees at Pharmapack Europe 2023 and of course the wider drug delivery and packaging industry because a strong Pharmapack Index indicates a prosperous year ahead for the industry. Our experts and results point to device, delivery and packaging companies returning to sustainability as the industry’s number one priority. In 2023, having moved on from recent challenges, companies will have to get back to grappling with the intractable question of how to accelerate innovation, lower costs while improving sustainability – clearly no easy challenge. We have seen that partnering is absolutely essential to improving these odds and it’s also why connecting at Pharmapack this week is so important to industry prospects,” commented Laura Indriksone, Brand Manager at Pharmapack Europe.
The report findings forecasts that many of the negative macro impacts of the last 12 months are easing, with the overall picture for innovation dramatically improving. New record highs in the Index, with confidence in the United States, Germany and the UK notably outperforming all other countries. Germany (9.1) in particular appears to have weathered recent storms particularly well and has once again moved alongside the USA (9.3) – with both countries achieving scores above 9. The first time either country, or any country, has achieved these scores in the survey’s history. The UK (8.5) has also continued trends of recent years with another significant improvement in its innovation score.
However, one country that has continued its slide down the rankings over recent years is Japan which, despite an increase to 7.2 (up from 6.8 eight months ago), has fallen further to 6th place. India and China have continued their dramatic 2022 improvements with rises of over 30% and 35% respectively – displacing other leading Western nations to be ranked as the best of the rest behind the top three.
The report expects 2023 to be the first year that normal development and growth returns to the majority of major markets as they become free of the pandemic’s drag factors. In terms of innovation the next 18 months will see mRNA technology and biologics mature further, with both new devices and even novel modes of delivery in development for mRNA.
Indriksone, added: “I would encourage all attendees to make the most of both the content and partnering available over the two days of Pharmapack. Building new contacts and securing new supply networks will lay the foundation for growth exceeding market expectations in the year ahead. Pharmapack provides a platform and plays its role in ensuring – thanks to our Start-up Hub and Awards – that many of the smaller companies and next generation technologies have a window to put themselves alongside the world’s largest and most innovative drug delivery and devices companies.”
