Industry achievements across the board were celebrated in style last night at the 7th Annual Scrip Awards at London's Grosvenor House.

The ceremony, hosted by broadcaster and political commentator the Right Honourable Michael Portillo, honoured excellence over the whole range of business activities of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and contract research organisation (CRO) industries.

Novartis was the night's big winner, cementing a solid year for the firm, with three awards, while Indian company Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and the CRO PPD took home two trophies each. But the biggest prize of the night, for Lifetime Achievement, went to biotech guru G Steven Burrill.

Novartis triumphed in some of the night's biggest categories: Pharma Company of the Year (sponsored by ICON), Best New Drug (sponsored by INC Research) and Executive of the Year for CEO Joe Jimenez.

The company's major achievement during the qualifying year was the acquisition of the US eyecare business Alcon to bring it a fifth growth platform, along with pharmaceuticals, generics, vaccines, diagnostics and consumer health. The deal combines Alcon's deep understanding of eye health with Novartis's scale and broad expertise to allow it to address virtually all key areas of eye health and position the Alcon division for faster growth.

Novartis also enjoyed above-market growth in 2010, bolstered by new portfolio products, and innovative new product launches. One of these, the multiple sclerosis (MS) drug Gilenya (fingolimod), took the prize for Best New Drug. This first-in-class sphingosine 1 phosphate receptor modulator was first approved in Russia in August 2010, and first launched in the US that October, making it the first oral disease-modifying therapy for relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis.

The judges said: "This is a truly remarkable new approach to the treatment of MS. Gilenya essentially 'sequesters' lymphocytes in the lymph nodes, 'imprisoning' them so than they cannot do damage in the CNS. It is an elegant approach to preventing demyelination in MS." By altering the course of the disease in a new way, Gilenya offers good efficacy with a manageable safety profile with the convenience of a once-daily capsule, addressing an important unmet need in this patient population.

And presiding over all this activity was CEO Joe Jimenez, who was rewarded with the Executive of the Year trophy. Since becoming CEO in early 2010, Mr Jimenez has led Novartis to achieve dynamic growth each quarter, growing by 14% in 2010 and outpacing the industry average.

Overall of Novartis, the judges said: "The various actions in completing the Alcon acquisition, some important new products launched and the continuing innovative research programme make this a year of 'advance on all fronts'."

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals' two awards were for Best Company in an Emerging Market and Best Overall Pipeline.

Glenmark was described by the judges as "a company to reckon with in the near future". A key achievement during the year for the Mumbai-based company was the signing of a second major deal with Sanofi, for a novel monoclonal antibody product (GBR 500) for Crohn's disease and other inflammatory conditions including MS, for a potential $613 million.

Glenmark has been building its pipeline of innovative products to make it a leader among the emerging markets in the drug discovery and development area. During the qualifying year, Glenmark completed Phase III trials of its most advanced potential offering, crofelemer, with its partners Salix Pharmaceuticals and Napo for HIV-associated diarrhoea. Further ethical R&D advances for the company included the discovery of a monoclonal antibody GBR 401 targeting CD19 for blood cancers.

The third company award, for Biotech Company of the Year (sponsored by PRA), went to Galapagos. This Belgian firm achieved its second year of sustained profitability in 2010, while progressing one of the largest pipelines in biotechnology.

In 2010 Galapagos invested €85 million in R&D, signed a new strategic alliance with Servier to develop new therapies in osteoarthritis, and expanded its COPD alliance with Roche. It also raised €28.7 million through a private placement to add to its war chest to fund possible future acquisitions that the company hopes could help it realise its ambition of becoming Europe's leading biotechnology company

Meanwhile, the Award for Best Contract Research Organisation went to PPD. This global CRO, which was recently acquired by private equity investors Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman, is a preferred clinical development partner to many biopharmaceutical companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, Elan and the Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai. It also works with the US army on its vaccines clinical development programme and a consortium of 14 global health product development partners to bring safe, new medicines to the developing world. The judging panel called PPD "a great organisation; open for new approaches, even more for driving new technologies".

PPD also triumphed in the award for Best Technological Development in Clinical Trials for its REMS Technology Solution. In collaboration with Microsoft, PPD developed an innovative technology solution designed to improve efficiency in managing the US FDA-mandated Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) programmes. This first-of-its-kind technology manages operational components of REMS programmes, while tracking large amounts of data from multiple sources, including the patient, healthcare provider and pharmacy.

This year's Management Team of the Year (sponsored by Talentmark) was deemed by the judges to be Zealand Pharma's senior management team. Under the leadership of CEO Dr David Solomon, this team took the company public, leading a successful €50 million IPO in November last year. This was the largest biotechnology IPO in Europe since the beginning of 2010, and the process relied fully on all parts of Zealand's management team and board, including supporting functions such as HR, finance and IT. The judges felt the management showed strong and decisive action in their decision to advance their plans for the IPO in spite of market conditions that had proved difficult for some other companies also considering listing at the same time

Deals, Deals, Deals
This year's winner of the Licensing Deal of the Year Award was for a worldwide agreement outside Asia for Astellas Pharma to develop and commercialise tivozanib, AVEO Pharmaceuticals' innovative VEGF inhibitor. The drug is designed to target all three VEGF receptors and is currently being investigated in a range of solid tumours, including advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Not only does the deal significantly enhance Astellas's oncology pipeline, it also provides ACEO with funding to accelerate the development of tivozanib in many other cancer indications. Under the agreement, AVEO received $125 million in an upfront payment and is eligible to receive a further $1.3 billion in potential milestone payments. "This deal validates the conventional wisdom that late-stage oncology products are pricey, and Astellas has paid the cost of entry to see if they have a winner here," the judges said.

The Best Partnership Alliance Award went to the AstraZeneca, Agendia and The Netherlands Cancer Institute's Colorectal Cancer Collaboration. This three-way collaboration between a major research-based pharmaceutical company, a innovative molecular diagnostics company, and a leading national cancer institute has the objective of accelerating the development of targeted therapies for colorectal cancer by segmenting colorectal cancer at the molecular level.

A key feature of the deal is that personalised diagnostics may be developed far earlier in the development process for new drugs than has been possible to date. "This is a model of how bio/pharma and academia can work in new paradigms involving a biotech and a pharma and a major academic research centre," the judges said. "This has the potential to pioneer new understanding of colorectal cancer and result in new diagnostics to understand a personalised approach to the treatment of this disease that does not now exist."

As outsourcing becomes such a vital part of the clinical and manufacturing process for the pharmaceutical industry the Scrip Award for Outsourcing Deal of the Year reflects the critical relationship between the biopharmaceutical industry and its service suppliers. This prize this year went to Sanofi's strategic R&D alliance with Covance.

In September 2010, the two firms signed the largest and most comprehensive R&D alliance in the history of the pharmaceutical and CRO industry. The deal, which the judges described as "impressive", blends scientific innovation, financial flexibility and operational efficiencies to foster more collaborative and productive scientific innovations and reduces the time and costs of drug development.

Another CRO ICON won the award for Clinical Research Team of the Year for its Mega Trial Clinical Operations Team. This team achieved the unexpected rapid closure of selective populations participating in two large mega trials consisting of more than 800 sites monitored by ICON. The team overcame several obstacles including achieving the deliverable within a very compressed timeframe while also ensuring compliance with regulatory and ethical considerations. The judging panel said this project was a "very complex task due to the number of sites and subjects, locations in different time zones and time pressure".

One special award of the evening was for Corporate Social Responsibility. The pharma and biotech industry's activities in the area of corporate social responsibility are wide-ranging and for many companies form an integral part of their strategy and operations. Corporate social responsibility gives the industry an opportunity to make a difference beyond their core businesses, often in some of the poorest parts of the world.

These programmes take long-term commitment, which makes it difficult to judge its impact over a 12 month period, and for this reason, Scrip decided to bring this award into the judges' gift, and this year we awarded the trophy to Abbott and the Abbott Fund Partnership to Strengthen the National Health System in Tanzania.

This unique public-private partnership formed in 2001 with the government of Tanzania has helped revitalise the country's health system and address critical needs in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Working closely together, they have modernised Tanzania's infrastructure, strengthened hospital management systems, trained healthcare workers, and expanded access to high-quality testing, treatment and care for HIV across the country.

The award was presented by Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder of Kids Company, Scrip's chosen charity for the Awards event. Kids Company provides practical, emotional and educational support to 14,000 vulnerable inner-city children in London.

But the loudest applause was for Steve Burrill, the recipient of this year's Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1994, Mr Burrill founded Burrill & Company, a life sciences merchant bank focused exclusively on companies involved in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, devices, human healthcare and related medical technologies, nutraceuticals and wellness, as well as agricultural and industrial biotechnology. He has also been the cornerstone author of the highly respected annual review of global biotech.

Mr Burrill has been an active advisor and catalyst in some of the industry's most notable companies and transactions, as well as helping governments throughout the world shape their bioindustrial policies. With his close involvement and respected position within the industry, he has established a reputation as a prominent deal-maker and facilitator of industry partnerships and alliances.
"Steve Burrill has played a pivotal role in the development of biotechnology not only as an industry on its own but also its acceptance in the past two decades by the pharma industry as a cornerstone technology. He has not only provided key analyses but has shaped the industry globally," said Scrip's Editor-in-Chief Mike Ward, who presented the award to Mr Burrill.