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Citeline Announces Winners of the 2022 Scrip Awards, Recognizing Accomplishments in Healthcare

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LONDON (PRWEB)

At a live ceremony held Wednesday night in London, Citeline announced the winners of the annual Scrip Awards, recognizing the outstanding accomplishments of those improving human healthcare worldwide. Now in its 18th year, the Scrip Awards spans 16 categories, honoring winners for their work in pharmaceuticals, biotech and allied industries across a wide range of activities.

The 2022 Scrip Award winners by category:


  • MSD’s Innovation Award: Orca Bio’s Orca-T cell therapy

  • China Biopharma Leadership Award – Sponsored by Avance Clinical: BeiGene China

  • Private Financing Deal of the Year: SalioGen Therapeutics’ $130 million Series B financing

  • Clinical Advance of the Year – Sponsored by IQVIA: Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca’s Phase III DESTINY-Breast04 trial of Enhertu in breast cancer

  • Business Development Team of the Year: Synaffix’s Business Development Team

  • Quris Partnership Alliance Award: GRAIL and AstraZeneca for the research, development and commercialization of companion diagnostic assays for early-stage cancer

  • Best Contract Research Organization – Specialist Providers: Veramed

  • Best Contract Research Organization – Full-Service Providers: ICON

  • Licensing Deal of the Year: GSK and Alector for the development and commercialization of AL001 and AL101 for neurodegenerative diseases

  • Community Partnership of the Year – Sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific: Regeneron and Society for Science’s Science Talent Search initiative

  • Executive of the Year – Companies with a market cap >$7 billion: Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna

  • Executive of the Year – Private companies and those with a market cap <$7 billion: Michael M. Morrissey, President and Chief Executive Officer of Exelixis

  • WuXi AppTec’s Biotech Company of the Year Award: Moderna

  • Best New Drug – Sponsored by WCG: Immunocore’s Kimmtrak (tebentafusp) for metastatic uveal melanoma

  • Pharma Company of the Year – Sponsored by Parexel: Novo Nordisk

  • Lifetime Achievement Award – Sponsored by ICON: Mads Øvlisen

Details for the award honorees follow:

The celebratory evening began with Orca Bio’s Orca-T cell therapy picking up MSD’s Innovation Award. Using a revolutionary precision cell selection process, Orca-T provides better outcomes for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell implants in patients at risk of graft-versus-host disease.

The China Biopharma Leadership Award – Sponsored by Avance Clinical was awarded to BeiGene China for bringing innovative and affordable medicines to patients worldwide, including BTK inhibitor Brukinsa, PD-1 antibody tislelizumab in the US, and PARP inhibitor pamiparib in China.

Next up, the accolade for Private Financing Deal of the Year went to SalioGen Therapeutics’ $130 million Series B financing, which far exceeded its original $75 million target, allowing the company to direct the proceeds to its gene coding platform.

Clinical Advance of the Year – Sponsored by IQVIA went to Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca’s Phase III DESTINY-Breast04 trial of Enhertu in breast cancer, the first HER2-directed therapy to show a survival benefit in patients with HER2-low metastatic breast cancer in the DESTINYBreast04 trial.

Synaffix’s highly experienced C-suite executives took honors for Business Development Team of the Year thanks to their successful track record in delivering deals and world-class science in the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) space. The team signed six licensing deals in the qualifying awards period with deal values around $500 million to $1 billion, with three ADCs already in clinical development.

Next, GRAIL and AstraZeneca accepted the Quris Partnership Alliance Award. The first partnership of its kind, this union combines the expertise of the two companies to research, develop and commercialize companion diagnostic assays for early stage cancer.

Global CRO Veramed earned this year’s prize for Best Contract Research Organization – Specialist Providers for its recent work on COVID-19 with some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies. The company provides quality-driven results for its customers through a collaborative, transparent and people-focused approach.

The Best Contract Research Organization – Full-Service Providers award went to ICON for delivering a unique operational model and varied experience across a wide range of studies, including the first fully decentralized clinical trial approved by the FDA. The company has skilfully leveraged its recent acquisition of PRA Health Sciences for the benefit of its pharma partners.

GSK and Alector combined forces to capture the Scrip Awards’ Licensing Deal of the Year for their agreement to co-develop progranulin-elevating monoclonal antibodies for a range of neurodegenerative diseases, including frontotemporal dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

Another successful joint venture was recognized with Community Partnership of the Year – Sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific. Regeneron and Society for Science’s Science Talent Search initiative supports the hard work and novel discoveries of promising leaders inspired to improve the world through STEM.

Turning to recognizing the outstanding contributions of individuals in the industry, the Scrip Awards’ coveted award for Executive of the Year – Companies with a market cap >$7 billion was presented to Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. Bancel oversaw the development of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine and has steered the firm’s incredible growth. Since 2011, he has led Moderna’s transformation from a small Massachusetts-based biotech company into a major worldwide pharma industry player.

The award for Executive of the Year – Private companies and those with a market cap <$7 billion was presented to Michael M. Morrissey, President and Chief Executive Officer of Exelixis. In addition to overseeing expansion of the company’s successful Cometriq/Cabometyx (cabozantinib) franchise to exceed $1 billion in US net revenues in 2021, Morrissey helped usher in a new era of R&D for the company.

Overall excellence in the industry was highlighted with Moderna’s win of the WuXi AppTec’s Biotech Company of the Year Award. Last year, Moderna produced and shipped more than 800 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, increased its total revenues from $803 million in 2020 to $18.5 billion in 2021, and built out a global footprint with 11 commercial subsidiaries across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Immunocore’s Kimmtrak (tebentafusp) took the spotlight next as it picked up the prize for Best New Drug – Sponsored by WCG. Kimmtrak is the first approved treatment for patients with unresectable or metastatic uveal melanoma and the first T-cell receptor (TCR) therapeutic to receive regulatory approval. Kimmtrak represents a paradigm shift in treatment for this aggressive form of cancer.

Pharma Company of the Year – Sponsored by Parexel was won by Novo Nordisk, chosen by the Scrip team.

Well known as a diabetes powerhouse, Novo Nordisk broadened its horizons this year, investing millions into cardiovascular and rare diseases R&D. It was busy on the business development front, sealing the $1.1 billion acquisition of Forma Therapeutics and inking innovative deals with Flagship and Ventus.

In the meantime, demand for its weight-loss medicine Wegovy has exceeded expectations and is set to become a game-changing mega-blockbuster at Novo Nordisk which once again has been an industry-leading force in environmental, social and governance (ESG), striving to do business in a financially, environmentally and socially responsible way.

The awards ceremony concluded with the final accolade of the evening, the Lifetime Achievement Award – Sponsored by ICON, which was presented to Mads Øvlisen, chosen by the Scrip team.

Øvlisen dedicated his career in the pharma industry to what is now a 99-year-old global top-20 firm employing around 50,000 people worldwide.

When he joined Novo Industri in 1972 as a young lawyer on a one-year project, it was already a significant insulin supplier, and one with a long and estimable history of research.

He stayed on, becoming CEO in 1981 and overseeing significant product development. Then in 1989 he steered the company through a defining merger with its closest rival, Nordisk Gentofte to create Novo Nordisk. Over the nearly thirty years of his leadership the company’s revenues increased eight-fold, primarily through organic growth.

But Øvlisen valued people before money. One of his key legacies was the emphasis he placed on corporate social responsibility, something he began before it was fashionable. The company was the first in Denmark — and one of the first in the world — to publish an environmental report, in 1994, and it introduced its first corporate social responsibility (CSR) report in 1999.

As CEO, he showed that business success and caring for people went hand in hand. He laid down a set of principles that articulated the founders’ core beliefs in integrity, responsibility, honesty and mutual respect, and made sure that all of the company’s leaders embodied these values.

His commitment to employees, society and the environment saw him appointed to the United Nations Global Compact by Kofi Annan.

Among his many other activities, he has been the chairman of Lego, an adjunct professor in CSR at Copenhagen Business School, co-founder of the European Academy for Society in Business, a member of the Global Impact Board, chairman of the Danish Art Council, chairman of the Royal Danish Ballet and a passionate supporter and sponsor of the arts and artistic research.

“Congratulations to all of this year’s winners and thank you to our headline sponsor ICON and all our other sponsors who have contributed to this fantastic event,” said Alex Shimmings, Executive Editor, Commercial/R&D for Scrip.

“Despite the challenges of the past 18-plus months, the pharma industry has shown both incredible resilience and dedication, which was clearly noticeable in the extremely high quality of entries,” she said.

“We would like to offer a sincere thank you to our judges for their time, extend congratulations to all the nominees for their achievements and, of course, to this year’s winners. We look forward to seeing you all again next year!”

For more information on the Scrip Pharma Awards, visit: pharmaintelligence.informa.com/ScripAwards2022

About Citeline

Citeline powers a full suite of complementary business intelligence offerings to meet the evolving needs of health science professionals to accelerate the connection of treatments to patients and patients to treatments. These patient-focused solutions and services deliver and analyze data used to drive clinical, commercial and regulatory related decisions and create real-world opportunities for growth.

Our global teams of analysts, journalists and consultants keep their fingers on the pulse of the pharmaceutical, biomedical and medtech industries, covering it all with expert insights: key diseases, clinical trials, drug R&D and approvals, market forecasts and more. For more information on one of the world’s most trusted health science partners, visit Citeline.

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