The Awards for the Best Contract Research Organization acknowledge the critical role that CROs play in drug development. Clinical outsourcing is vital as the pharmaceutical industry seeks to benefit more and more from these specialist companies’ experience in handling all aspects of clinical trials. The Awards for CROs are split into two sister categories to separate the larger full-service providers from those smaller CROs that provide specialist services to their clients.

FINALISTS

• CTI Clinical Trial & Consulting Services
• Fortrea
• ICON
• Novotech
• Parexel
• Tigermed

WHO COULD ENTER

This Award is for the companies who provide the full range of clinical research services and they will be judged on the quality of these services and relationships the firms have built with their clients. It will pay particular attention to the innovative patient recruitment strategies the CRO has brought to the deal. To qualify, candidates must draw on their achievements in the year between 1 July 2023 - 30 June 2024.

The Awards for the Best Contract Research Organization acknowledge the critical role that CROs play in drug development. Clinical outsourcing is vital as the pharmaceutical industry seeks to benefit more and more from these specialist companies’ experience in handling all aspects of clinical trials. The Awards for CROs are split into two sister categories to separate the larger full-service providers from those smaller CROs that provide specialist services to their clients.

FINALISTS

• Allucent
• Bioforum
• Cellomatics Biosciences
• Cerba Research
• Crown Bioscience
• OWL Oncology Research
• PHARMExcel
• Phastar

WHO COULD ENTER

This Award for those companies who provide niche services to their clients will be judged on the quality of these services and relationships they have built with their clients.

The Best New Drug Award recognizes excellence in pharmaceutical development. Launching innovative new products is the most important function of the industry, and a successful new drug launch marks the culmination of years of risky and expensive R&D. In this category, the judges will be looking for the small-molecule or biological product that was approved in its first market worldwide during the qualifying period that represents the best therapeutic advance in its area.

FINALISTS

• Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics’ Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel) for sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia
• Sarepta Therapeutics’ Elevidys (delandistrogene moxeparvovec) for Duchenne muscular dystrophy
• SpringWorks Therapeutics’ Ogsiveo (nirogacestat) for desmoid tumors
• Verona Pharma's Ohtuvayre (ensifentrine) for COPD
• Phathom Pharmaceuticals’ Voquezna (vonoprazan) for erosive esophagitis
• MSD/Merck & Co’s Winrevair (sotatercept) for pulmonary arterial hypertension
• Tarsus Pharmaceuticals’ Xdemvy (lotilaner ophthalmic solution) for Demodex blepharitis
• Calliditas Therapeutics’ Tarpeyo (budesonide) for primary IgA nephropathy

WHO COULD ENTER

All recently launched new active substances, including small molecules, biologicals or vaccines. Generic and biosimilar products are not eligible for this Award.

Entrants must have played a role in the development of the nominated product, and all parties to joint ventures should be disclosed in the application.

This Scrip Award seeks to recognize early clinical advances in oncology made by small biopharma companies. The great strides seen in cancer therapies in recent years often had their genesis in the labs of specialist firms. We are looking to reward companies that are exploiting new knowledge in cancer cell biology and the tumor microenvironment to forge new paths to tackle the disease, for instance by developing novel therapeutic strategies in immuno-oncology, gene and cell therapies and new targeted agents.

This category is aimed at clinical-stage oncology firms pioneering new approaches in the treatment of cancer that have shown proof of concept in early (Phase I or II) clinical trials and have candidates moving forward in the development pathway.

FINALISTS

• Avacta’s pre|CISION technology-based AVA6000 chemotherapy
• CatalYm’s GDF-15-neutralizing monoclonal antibody, visugromab
• Faron Pharmaceuticals’ anti-CLEVER-1 antibody, bexmarilimab
• iOnctura’s PI3Kδ inhibitor, roginolisib
• Poseida Therapeutics’ allogeneic CAR-T therapy, P-BCMA-ALLO1
• 23andMe Therapeutics’ CD200R1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, 23ME-00610

WHO COULD ENTER

Entrants must have played a role in the early phase research, and all joint parties must be disclosed in the application.

Scrip’s Business Development Team of the Year Award will honor the achievements of business development teams whether they are from a pharma or biotech company or a cross-company team responsible for a specific deal or collaborative project.

FINALISTS

• Accord Healthcare's Business Development Team
• AstraZeneca’s Business Development Operations
• Enable Injections’ Business Development Team
• FutureMeds’ Business Development Team
• Merck Healthcare’s Business Development & Alliance Management

WHO COULD ENTER

This Award will go to a team that is truly much more than the sum of its parts. The Judges will be looking for strong performance across a number of criteria, such as achievement of short- and long-term goals, and good communication of a shared vision.

This Award seeks to recognize success in a clinical trial of a new drug product (biological or chemical) that is expected to lead to an advance in healthcare. This might include the first demonstration of a clear clinical effect for a new drug in an area of unmet medical need, a pivotal study of a new drug with a breakthrough mechanism of action, or a major study of a potential new or expanded indication for an already marketed product. The product involved need not yet be approved, but the judges will be looking for innovation, clear proof of benefit and potential commercial reward.

FINALISTS

• Agios Pharmaceuticals' Phase III ENERGIZE and ENERGIZE-T studies for thalassemia
• Annexon’s Phase III trial of ANX005 in Guillain-Barré syndrome
• Avidity Biosciences’ Phase I/II FORTITUDE trial of delpacibart braxlosiranin for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy
• Incyte and Syndax Pharmaceuticals’ pivotal Phase II AGAVE-201 trial of axatilimab for chronic graft-versus-host disease
• Vera Therapeutics’ Phase IIb ORIGIN trial of atacicept for immunoglobulin A nephropathy

WHO COULD ENTER

Entrants must have played a role in the clinical study, and all joint parties must be disclosed in the application.

This Award is designed to acknowledge the numerous ways in which pharma and biotech companies give back to the wider community. This could include outreach within a local community, with a charity or patient advocacy group, or alongside an NGO or humanitarian organization.

FINALISTS

• AstraZeneca and UNICEF UK’s Young Health Programme
• AstraZeneca's Science in Pictures
• EMS Healthcare, NHS England, GRAIL Bio UK and King's College London’s partnership to deliver the NHS-Galleri trial
• Gilead Sciences and the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s RADIAN partnership
• Kura Oncology and Life Science Cares
• Organon’s Her Plan is Her Power
• PTC Therapeutics’ support for people with disabilities in sport

WHO COULD ENTER

These types of partnerships could include patient and carer support programs, educational programs or disease awareness campaigns or even a social media campaign that went viral.

Scrip’s Executive of the Year Award is designed to acknowledge excellence in the leadership of large and small pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

FINALISTS

Executive of the Year – Commercial-Stage Companies

• Renée Aguiar-Lucander, CEO of Calliditas Therapeutics
• Guy Clark, CEO of CNX Therapeutics
• Terrie Curran, CEO of Phathom Pharmaceuticals
• Harren Jhoti, CEO of Astex Pharmaceuticals
• Julie Kim, President, US Business Unit and US Country Head at Takeda
• Umang Vohra, Managing Director and Global CEO of Cipla

Executive of the Year – Clinical-Stage Companies

• Howard Berman, CEO of Coya Therapeutics
• Lindy Durrant, CEO and CSO of Scancell
• Jodie Morrison, CEO of Q32 Bio
• Catherine Pickering, CEO of iOnctura
• Nolan Townsend, CEO of Lexeo Therapeutics
• Troy Wilson, CEO of Kura Oncology

WHO COULD ENTER

To be eligible for this year’s Award, entrants must hold a C-suite executive position. Candidates must be employed by the company at the time of nomination.

Deals are vital both in helping to keep pharma’s pipelines replenished and in generating income for smaller firms or exits for investors. Deals considered here are those that involve the licensing of a particular drug, project or group of closely related drugs/projects from one company to another for further development and/or marketing, or M&A deals centred around a product or group of related products. Please note, it does not include more involved partnerships between companies to explore particular therapeutic strategies (see Criteria for the Best Partnership Alliance)

FINALISTS

• AstraZeneca and Fusion Pharmaceuticals for next generation radioconjugates
• AstraZeneca and Gracell Biotechnologies for chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) cell therapies
• Daiichi Sankyo and MSD for the DXd antibody-drug conjugate candidates, patritumab deruxtecan, ifinatamab deruxtecan and raludotatug deruxtecan
• Intas Pharmaceuticals and Henlius Biotech for the commercialization of serplulimab (Hetronifly) in Europe and India
• Johnson & Johnson for NM26 for atopic dermatitis from Numab and Kaken
• Protagonist Therapeutics and Takeda for rusfertide for polycythemia vera
• Sanofi and Teva for TEV'574 in inflammatory bowel disease
• Takeda and AC Immune for ACI-24.060 and other immunotherapies targeting amyloid beta for Alzheimer's disease

WHO COULD ENTER

To qualify, licensing deals must have been closed between 1 July 2023 - 30 June 2024.

This category will acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding scientific or technological breakthrough which the judging panel believes has the potential to be transformative in the discovery or development of new medicines.

FINALISTS

• Deep Genomics’ BigRNA
• Generate:Biomedicines’ Chroma
• Mestag Therapeutics’ insights into fibroblast-immune interactions, including its RAFT target discovery platform
• PhoreMost’s SITESEEKER technology
• Sana Biotechnology’s novel immune editing technology for cell therapeutics
• Turbine’s Simulated Cell platform

WHO COULD ENTER

Start-up pharma/biotech companies wishing to enter must have designed, delivered and launched the innovation (alone or with a partner), and all parties to any joint development activities must be disclosed in the application.

Scrip’s Best Partnership Alliance Award recognizes the importance of pharmaceutical and/or biotech companies working together to develop new medicines from the earliest stages. This category seeks to reward innovative partnerships between companies in which they share the risks and rewards inherent in exploring novel therapeutic strategies and developing new drugs.

FINALISTS

• Merck KGaA and Caris Life Sciences for the discovery and development of first-in-class anticancers
• Monte Rosa and Roche for the discovery and development of molecular glue degraders against cancer and neurological disease targets
• Nurix Therapeutics and Pfizer for the development of degrader-antibody conjugates
• Poseida Therapeutics and Xyphos Biosciences for the development of novel allogeneic cell therapies in oncology
• Recursion and Bayer Pharmaceuticals’ oncology-focused collaboration
• SpliceBio with Spark Therapeutics to develop a gene therapy targeting an inherited retinal disease

WHO COULD ENTER

The judges will be focusing on deals that require strong strategic input from both partners, involving R&D, business development or joint marketing/promotion. They are looking for those deals that are the most mutually beneficial, have the most strategic potential, and are innovative in their structure.

Please note, this Award does not cover the licensing of a particular drug, project or group of closely related drugs/projects from one company to another for further development and/or marketing (see Criteria for Licensing Deal of the Year).

The biotech industry’s entrepreneurial spirit and cutting-edge science have transformed the research and development of medicines in the past few decades. This Award honours outstanding achievement by biotech companies over the qualifying 12 months.

FINALISTS

• Agios Pharmaceuticals
• Avidity Biosciences
• Bicycle Therapeutics
• CN Bio
• Enterprise Therapeutics
• FogPharma
• NMD Pharma
• Sitryx Therapeutics

WHO COULD ENTER

The winner of the Biotech Company of the Year Award will be the biotech firm that has achieved the most in the 12 months between 1 July 2023 - 30 June 2024.

The Pharma Company of the Year Award honors outstanding achievements by pharmaceutical companies - This special Award is chosen by Scrip’s senior editorial team, based on a variety of key metrics: The winner will be announced on the night of the Scrip Awards.

The winner of this Award will be an exceptional individual with a consistent history of service, above and beyond the call of duty, throughout their career. This prestigious international Award will go to someone who has had a distinguished career in the biotech or pharmaceutical arena, primarily within industry.

WHO COULD ENTER

Nominees may be retired or semi-retired but will still be active in the industry in some capacity. For this special Award, candidates must be nominated by a third party.