As CPHI Milan 2026 prepares to bring together leaders from across the global pharmaceutical supply chain, the event is evolving beyond traditional sourcing to focus on strategic partnerships, innovation and practical solutions. In this interview, Tara discusses the event’s expanded networking programme, the new AI & Technology Zone, the inaugural Sustainability Summit and the key trends shaping pharma, from emerging modalities and resilient supply chains to the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence.
Q. What’s new at CPHI Milan, and how has the event evolved for 2026?
A big focus of this year’s event is networking. For 2026, we have introduced many more experiences which we hope will provide a platform for developing even more valuable connections at the show. From our very first Welcome Reception at the iconic Villa Necchi, to our Exhibitor Wine Tour, the CPHI Celebration & Awards and our Happy Hours, we’ve spent a lot of time developing fresh opportunities for attendees to meet, in what we hope will be a relaxed and fun environment.
Another big development is an expanded conference programme, with more than 300 speakers across eight content tracks. Topics will include the most pressing issues facing the industry, from the transformation of pharmaceutical manufacturing and supply security to emerging modalities, regulatory change, technology and quality.
Alongside our free to attend programme, we’re launching the inaugural CPHI Sustainability Summit, a dedicated two-day forum designed to bring sustainability leaders and decision-makers together for practical, discussion-led collaboration across the pharmaceutical value chain.
We’ve built upon the 2025 launch of four new zones: AI and tech, cold chain and logistics, contamination control and labelling. These zones reflect areas of growing demand and regulatory attention, and they give attendees dedicated spaces to explore practical solutions and meet relevant technology and service partners.
This evolution reflects a change in what attendees are looking for, and where the market is heading. CPHI is an important sourcing environment, but conversations are increasingly strategic. Companies want long-term partners, practical insight and opportunities to solve complex challenges together.
Q. What can attendees expect from the newly launched AI & Technology Zone, and why is this focus especially relevant to the pharmaceutical industry now?
The new AI and tech zone is designed to give pharmaceutical decision-makers and technology companies a dedicated meeting point focused on practical applications. Attendees will be able to explore solutions supporting smarter manufacturing, predictive maintenance, quality management, data integrity, regulatory compliance and commercial intelligence. The intention is to spotlight companies who are working on these new technologies, showcase how they fit within pharmaceutical operations and facilitate easier connections with organisations seeking services.
That practical focus is particularly important now because the conversation around AI has moved on significantly. A few years ago, much of the industry discussion centred on possibilities. Today, companies are asking how AI can be implemented effectively to accelerate drug discovery, improve manufacturing efficiency, strengthen quality systems and create more resilient supply chains.
The industry is already seeing progress in areas such as manufacturing automation, digital twins, data-driven quality management and AI-enabled production planning, but new technologies still need to be integrated responsibly into systems where compliance and patient centricity are critical. The AI and technology zone has been designed to support the partnerships required to take promising technologies from individual applications towards wider adoption.
Q. What are the key themes and discussions planned for the new Sustainability Summit?
The new CPHI Sustainability Summit is intended to move the sustainability conversation towards practical action. It will run alongside CPHI Milan on 6–7 October and provide a dedicated, discussion-focused forum for those working across the pharmaceutical value chain. We’ve had a fantastic response to this event, and expect more than 300 sustainability stakeholders and industry decision-makers to take part in the diverse programme, which included roundtables, interactive discussions and peer-to-peer working groups. Importantly, the format is designed around collaboration. The aim is to bring different functions and organisations together to share knowledge and address common barriers.
One area I expect to feature prominently is the relationship between sustainability and supply-chain resilience. Diversification, transparency and digital visibility can contribute to both stronger long-term supply performance and more sustainable ways of operating. Discussions are likely to cover issues including supplier diversification, regional manufacturing strategies, responsible sourcing and technologies that can improve visibility throughout the supply chain. The emphasis is on creating supply networks that are more efficient and better prepared for future disruption.
For us, the Sustainability Summit reflects a wider shift in the industry, with organisations needing to work across functions and company boundaries to translate sustainability ambitions into meaningful change.
Q. Which major trends do you expect to shape conversations and influence the pharmaceutical industry throughout this year’s event?
The industry is dealing with scientific, technological, regulatory and geopolitical change simultaneously, so I expect conversations at CPHI Milan to focus on what companies can do in practice. This shift from possibility to implementation is especially clear in AI. Companies are becoming more focused on how to deploy the technology effectively and responsibly within complex, highly regulated operations, rather than simply exploring what it might make possible. The same practical mindset is also shaping wider digital transformation, with technologies such as automation, digital twins and data-driven systems becoming more closely embedded in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
In terms of scientific innovation, there continues to be significant interest in cell and gene therapies, biologics, GLP-1 therapies and advanced drug delivery. The conference programme will also examine emerging modalities including radioligands and RNA-based medicines.
Running through all of this will be questions around manufacturing and supply. Companies are navigating geopolitical uncertainty, increasing regulatory expectations, capacity pressures and the need for more resilient global supply chains without sacrificing efficiency. Outsourcing strategy and CDMO capacity will therefore remain important, as will the move towards more strategic manufacturing partnerships. The common thread will be how organisations combine innovation with operational excellence and build the partnerships required to deliver change at scale.
Q. How are attendee priorities changing, and how is CPHI responding to the evolving needs of pharmaceutical companies and their partners?
In the past, sourcing suppliers and meeting existing partners were central reasons for coming to CPHI, and they remain extremely important. However, attendee priorities have become noticeably more strategic, and the type of relationship companies are looking to build has changed.
Pharmaceutical organisations now need partners who can help them address complex, interconnected challenges over the longer term. That might mean scaling biologics manufacturing, navigating regulatory requirements, adopting new technologies or improving supply-chain resilience. As a result, we’re seeing a broader movement from transactional relationships towards trusted, strategic partnerships.
CPHI Milan 2026 has been developed with attendees’ changing priorities in mind. The expanded conference programme is designed to provide practical insight into the major challenges and opportunities shaping the industry, while our four new dedicated zones allow attendees to focus on emerging capabilities across development and manufacturing, including AI and technology, cold-chain logistics, contamination control and labelling. We’re also thinking more broadly about how CPHI can help attendees make the right connections. By combining in-person interaction with digital tools that support preparation before the event and follow-up afterwards, we can make it easier for people to identify relevant partners, start more meaningful conversations and carry those relationships forward beyond Milan. The goal is to make it easier for attendees to find suppliers, as well as the right technologies and partners for where their businesses are heading next.
Q. What role do you expect emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, to play in shaping the future of pharmaceutical development, manufacturing, and supply chains?
As the industry advances areas such as cell and gene therapies, radioligands and RNA-based medicines, companies also need the manufacturing, quality and supply-chain capabilities to support complex medicines at scale. That complexity is driving greater demand for specialist cold-chain and logistics capabilities for advanced therapies and vaccines, as well as new approaches to contamination control, environmental monitoring and automation. Technologies around labelling and serialisation are also becoming more important as companies manage complex products and regulatory requirements across global markets.
AI sits within that broader transformation, with its value likely to come from how it supports the systems and processes around pharmaceutical development and manufacturing. That could include helping companies interpret information more effectively, strengthening production planning or supporting greater visibility across operations. The emphasis will increasingly be on where it can add tangible value within an already complex technology landscape.
As new therapeutic modalities create different requirements for manufacturing, handling, quality control and distribution, innovation in one part of the value chain drives change across several others. The future is likely to be shaped by how effectively companies bring together manufacturing technology and specialist supply-chain capabilities to support the next generation of medicines.
Q. Why does face-to-face collaboration remain so important for innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, and what makes CPHI a valuable environment for those connections?
Digital tools have transformed how the pharmaceutical industry communicates, making it much easier to identify potential partners, exchange information and maintain relationships. However, they have not replaced the trust and collaboration gained from face-to-face events.
The pharma industry is characterised by long development cycles involving complex partnerships and significant investment decisions. Those relationships often require companies to work closely together over many years, which means there is still enormous value in being able to sit down face-to-face, understand each other’s capabilities and priorities, and build confidence in a potential partnership.
By bringing decision-makers from across the global pharmaceutical supply chain together under one roof, CPHI can create opportunities for conversations that might otherwise take months to arrange individually. When scientific expertise, manufacturing capabilities, technology providers, suppliers and commercial decision-makers are all in the same environment, ideas can move very quickly from an initial conversation towards a meaningful collaboration.
We also see digital and face-to-face engagement as complementary rather than competing. Attendees can use CPHI’s platform before the event to research companies, explore products, arrange meetings and build their agendas, then continue those conversations after Milan.
CPHI gives people the chance to learn from peers, discover technologies, challenge existing thinking and gain a broader perspective on where pharma is heading. In an industry where no single organisation has all the answers, creating that environment for collaboration is hugely important.
