In a blowout year that saw three separate companies each achieve multiple honors, Sandoz emerged as the biggest winner of the Global Generics & Biosimilars Awards 2024, sponsored by IQVIA. Sandoz took home three prizes at our prizegiving ceremony in Milan – including the night’s top award, Company of the Year.
The firm’s CEO, Richard Saynor, also took home a prize in the Leader of the Year category – sponsored by Pharmacloud – after overseeing a busy 12 months for Sandoz. These saw the company complete its spinoff from former parent company Novartis (see sidebar), as well as delivering on a series of strategic milestones – including several key approvals and launches – and achieving steady growth while meeting guidance. (Also see "Sandoz Celebrates Growth As It Delivers First Standalone Annuals" - Generics Bulletin, 14 March, 2024.)
Sandoz Stands Alone As It Completes Novartis Spinoff
Thirdly, Sandoz walked away with the award for Biosimilar Initiative of the Year, after capitalizing on launches of its Humira (adalimumab) biosimilar in the US and its Tysabri (natalizumab) rival in Europe, as well as recently launching a European Stelara (ustekinuumab) biosimilar and winning the first US and European approvals for denosumab. (Also see "Sandoz Benefits From Betting Big On Biosimilars" - Generics Bulletin, 14 March, 2024.)
Meanwhile, Adalvo came close to matching Sandoz’s total number of wins, with the firm awarded the prize for Business Development of the Year – thanks to an entry that focused in particular on its diabetes pipeline, billed as “one of the broadest in the industry” – as well as taking the award for Value Added Medicine Initiative of the Year after demonstrating its “dedication to addressing unmet medical needs across a variety of different therapeutic areas, with a goal of improving patient outcomes, enhancing compliance, and streamlining treatment protocols.”
Our other multiple winner this year was Eurofarma Laboratórios, which won the prize for Acquisition of the Year – for its deal to acquire Genfar, Sanofi's generics operation based in Colombia and affiliates in Ecuador and Peru – as well as our award for the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiative of the Year, supported by International Health Partners, for the firm’s Lactare private human milk bank and breastfeeding support.
Stada, Samsung Bioepis And Reddy’s Triumph In Regional Categories
In our three regional Company of the Year categories, a trio of industry giants claimed the top spots.
Stada was named as the Company of the Year in the EMEA region, with the firm’s entry focusing on the transformation of the company “from a German-centred company that is mainly focused on generics, into a broad-based Europe-focused healthcare company with market-beating growth on the top and bottom line,” under the leadership of CEO Peter Goldschmidt.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Samsung Bioepis was our Company of the Year thanks to its broad biosimilars pipeline and numerous approvals and market access milestones in Europe and North America over the past year.
And Dr Reddy’s Americas once again took home the award for Company of the Year in the Americas region – sposored by Cerba Research – with an entry that focused in particular on its growth in Latin America.
Elsewhere among our winners, the award for API Supplier of the Year – sponsored by Adalvo – was won by Centrient Pharmaceuticals, which championed its “innovative and sustainable production processes as well as supply-chain security, with a goal of being the world’s leading sustainable enzymatic API manufacturer.”
The award for Industry Partner of the Year – sponsored by Aurobindo – went to a partnership between Accord Healthcare and Synthon that spanned more than 100 products.
And Abyolo’s Sarfaraz Niazi picked up the award for Regulatory Achievement of the Year thanks to his advocacy challenging the necessity of certain testing for biosimilar interchangeability by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Finally, we saw a rare dead heat in our Campaign of the Year category, with both Celltrion and Teva earning identical scores from our judging panel and therefore declared joint winners. Celltrion was rewarded for its “Where’s Crohn’s & Colitis?” campaign to engage new audiences on the topic and break down barriers on the complex issue of access inequalities, while Teva was recognized for its second in-house report on the current state of the European generics segment, “The Critical Medicines Health Check 2024.”
“This year competition was fiercer than ever before, with scores exceptionally close in a couple of categories.”
“After 11 years of the event, we have now become used to seeing such a high standard of entries across all 14 of our awards categories,” commented Generics Bulletin executive editor Dave Wallace. “But this year competition was fiercer than ever before, with scores exceptionally close in a couple of categories – meaning that winners and shortlisted finalists alike should all be proud of their achievements. We look forward to holding the Global Generics & Biosimilars Awards 2025 next year in Frankfurt!”
As well as expressing gratitude to our expert judging panel, Generics Bulletin would also like to thank our sponsors – including our headline sponsor IQVIA, as well as our category sponsors Adalvo, Aurobindo, Cerba Research and Pharmacloud. We would also to thank the AAM and its Biosimilars Council, the IGBA and International Health Partners for their support of the event.
For full details of the awards, including our categories and sponsors, click here.
To enquire about future sponsorship opportunities for the Global Generics & Biosimilars Awards, please e-mail christopher.keeling@citeline.com
And to register interest in attending the Global Generics & Biosimilars Awards 2025, to receive the latest updates and for any further details, please e-mail natalia.kay@citeline.com
