CPhI Worldwide has announced the launch of a new advisory board designed to bolster the experience provided by the global event portfolio and supporting brands to both exhibitors and visitors.

The advisory board, consisting of a group of the industry’s most experienced and highly respected members, will help CPhI to identify industry hot topics and will guide the content produced at CPhI Worldwide. The new board will also naturally co-exist with the annual report expert panel, which predicts the future of the industry across a series of in-depth articles.

A key goal is to ensure that the CPhI content platforms address in a meaningful and interactive way the industry’s concerns and challenges, whilst creatingforums for industry professionals to exchange ideas, discover new opportunities and find solutions to their most critical problems. The advisory board members reflect this commitment to serving the CPhI customer base and will include representation from key analysts, leading exhibitors, big pharma, independent experts and academics.

Alan Sheppard, Principal, Global Generics, Thought Leadership, IMS Health will provide expertise across the generics, biosimilars and emerging markets. Ingredients manufacturer, FMC will lend its expertise on excipients through Brian Carlin, Director of Open Innovation.

Whilst the world’s largest CDMOs, Catalent and DPx, will provide invaluable global perspectives through Kurt Nielsen, chief technology officer and senior vice president, R&D (Catalent); and Lukas Utiger, President, DPx Fine Chemicals. Regulatory expertise will come from Dilip Shah, CEO of Vision Consulting and Marlene Llopiz, Director for International Strategies and Regulatory Affairs, Probiomed.

Big pharma and generics will be represented through Martin Folger, Head of Pharmaceutical Development, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica; and Roger Bakale, vice president CMC and Clinical Supply Chain, Receptos (and formally a senior director of R&D at TEVA).

Partnerships, Packaging, Fine Chemicals and Marketing will complete the expertise portfolio through: Giles Breault who left Novartis to found consultancy firm the Beyond.

Group; Frederic Kahn, Vice President Key Account Management, Gerresheimer AG; Jan Ramakers, Owner, Fine Chemical Consulting Group; and Nigel Walker, Managing Director of That’s Nice respectively.

The board will meet annually and take part in regular conference calls in order to provide strategic insights into current plans and future development priorities, along with key practical issues surrounding the pharma industry and CPhI- ensuring that this feedback is implemented at the world’s leading pharma event.

At CPhI Worldwide, the Pre-Connect Congress agenda will be heavily shaped by insights derived from conversations with the advisory board. Using their diverse mix of skills will create a wider breadth of knowledge to further improve customer experience at the show.

The advisory board will also assist with targeted attendee profiling and audience message mapping- which is essentially a review of visitor goals and priorities so that

CPhI can help them to target the most salient information and contacts more quickly at the show.

This latest development completes CPhI’s commitment to be at the forefront of keeping its exhibitors, visitors and the wider industry, up-to-date and informed with the latest content and trends within the international pharmaceutical community.

On joining the CPhI Advisory Board, Alan Sheppard of IMS Health, commented: “What is really setting the most dynamic pharma companies apart is access to the most targeted information and contacts- in a heavily globalised and diversified industry these raw materials will be essential in driving tomorrow’s growth. CPhI, using its advisory panel and events, will now become a hub for centralising this process and helping its customers to obtain precious targeted information that will give their companies a key advantage over rivals.

Later this year, the CPhI annual report panel for 2015 will also be released; a collection of world-leading experts who give vital market analysis and explore future contingencies for the pharmaceutical industry- with Dilip Shah and Brian Carlin already confirmed again as panel members.

“We are really delighted to be able to call upon such a unique mix of industry experts to help ensure that our global CPhI Pharma portfolio remains the most relevant,insightful and respected platform for doing business and finding new opportunities in the global pharma community. Our goal now is to enhance the opportunities and services we bring to our customers and ensure we present them with the latest insights, and practical solutions, to establish more pharma contacts and make improved business decisions.” Chris Kilbee, Group Director Pharma at UBM.