The Best New Drug Award recognizes excellence in pharmaceutical development. In this category, the judges will be looking for the small-molecule, biological, cell/ gene therapy, digital therapeutic or vaccine product approved in Japan during the qualifying period that represents the best therapeutic advance in its area. Any recently launched new product is eligible to enter as long as it was approved in its first indication in Japan between July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024. (Generic and biosimilar products are not eligible.) 

WHO CAN ENTER

Entrants must have played a key role in the development of the nominated product, for example as a sole licensee or co-developer responsible for clinical trials and/or regulatory submissions, and all company members of joint development or joint venture agreements should be disclosed in the application.

To enter this category, please answer the following:

• Brand and generic name, indication, company(ies) involved in its development (if more than one company, please detail the relationship between the parties).
• Date and market of approval and launch.
• Mechanism of action. How is this differentiated from other products and how does it represent a step forward?
• Outline evidence for clinical activity, for example summary results from registrational clinical trials. How does this translate into a meaningful therapeutic benefit for patients and over other drugs?
• What is the potential market size of the candidate?

Designed to acknowledge excellence in leadership, the winner of this award will be the executive who has exhibited exemplary leadership throughout the qualifying period (July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024). Also important to the judges will be the executive’s career achievements, influence within the industry and characteristics that make a good leader, such as decisive and clear strategy, team building and employee welfare.

WHO CAN ENTER

Entrants must hold a C-suite executive position and be employed by the company at the time of nomination.

To enter this category, please answer the following:

• Name, company and position of the entrant, and the date of taking up this post.
• Entrant’s greatest achievements during the qualifying year? What has been the direct consequence on company performance?
• How have these achievements strengthened the candidate’s influence within the industry?
• Entrant’s greatest strengths as a leader? How did these have a bearing on their achievements this year?
• What specific previous accomplishments helped with this success? For example, previous scientific or management experience.

This award honors outstanding achievements by biotech companies over the qualifying period (July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024). This could be in terms of moving the business from an early stage to a more mature company, signing a transformative deal, taking its first or a major new product towards the market, or raising significant new funds.

WHO CAN ENTER

To enter this category, please provide the following information:

• The company’s most significant achievement during the year.
• Accomplishments in terms of: bringing new products closer to market; raising funds; significant licensing or partnership deals; evidence that management has been able to make difficult decisions to progress the company and its products; using proprietary science or technologies for unmet medical needs; transition from early stage to more mature company.

This Award is to recognize contract research organizations that provide full or specialist services to their clients and which have an office or other base (but not necessarily a head office) either in Japan or the Asia region, including Australia.

Entrant companies must offer services in Japan, but the achievements listed in the entry form do not necessarily have to be trials or services conducted in Japan (for example, clinical trials conducted in China or Australia are also eligible).

Judging will consider the quality and benefits of services and relationships built with clients and will pay particular attention to innovative patient trial recruitment strategies brought to the table.

WHO CAN ENTER

To qualify, candidates must draw on their achievements in the qualifying period (July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024).

To enter this category, please answer the following:

• What particular capabilities and strengths does the CRO offer?
• How has the company delivered results that exceed sponsor/partner expectations?
• What innovations in patient recruitment strategy has the CRO brought to its partner?
• How has it improved its performance, for example, in its quality of data, timelines and transparency?
• What steps is the CRO taking towards improving the collection and reporting of trial data, through new procedures and systems such as electronic data capture, storage and platforms?

This Award is to recognize contract development manufacturing organizations that provide full or specialist services to their clients and which have an office or other base (but not necessarily a head office) either in Japan or the Asia region, including Australia.

Entrant companies must offer services in Japan, but the achievements listed in the entry form do not necessarily have to be services or manufacturing conducted in Japan (for example, such activities conducted in Asia or Australia are also eligible).

Judging will consider the quality and benefits of services and relationships built with clients and will pay particular attention to innovative services or processes brought to the table.

WHO CAN ENTER

To qualify, candidates must draw on their achievements in the qualifying period (July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024).

To enter this category, please answer the following:

• What particular capabilities and strengths does the CDMO offer?
• How has the company delivered results that exceed partner expectations?
• What innovations in services or manufacturing techniques/approaches has the CDMO brought to its partners?
• How has it improved performance, for example, timelines, more efficient processes?
• What steps is the CDMO taking towards improving its services through new systems/processes, for example which reduce resource/energy use or costs?

Deals considered here are those that involve the licensing of a particular drug, project or group of R&D assets from one company to another for further development and/ or marketing. (This category does not include more complex, broad partnerships between companies, for example to explore particular therapeutic strategies or mechanisms of action.) The judges will look at all aspects from monetary and strategic value to the benefits they give to both sides.

WHO CAN ENTER

To qualify, licensing deals must have been closed during the qualifying period of July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024.

To enter this category, please answer the following:

• Outline the structure of the deal, giving the names of the parties involved, the drug candidate(s) concerned, and what rights it covers.
• Monetary value of the deal in up-front and milestone payments.
• Countries and indications included in the deal and does it allow any party to enter new markets?
• Strategic value of the licensed product to the licensee/licensor’s business.
• Please explain how the licensed product was the best possible candidate to complement the rest of the licensee’s pipeline or particular disease franchise, or how it fit into the licensor’s business strategy.

This Award seeks to reward successful and creative fundraising by pharma and biotech companies in Japan, which are either privately or publicly owned. The investment can take various forms, including grants and public-private partnership deals, to fundraising from venture capital and private equity partners and initial public offerings. The majority of the new funds should be earmarked for use in drug discovery and/or company development. The qualifying period is July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024.

WHO CAN ENTER

The basic criterion for this award is the total amount of money raised at one time – for example in a Series A (or later) funding round or through an IPO – but other factors should be considered as well. For example:

• Did the financing attract a broad range of investor groups?
• Did investors include groups that do not normally invest in pharma/biotech?
• Were any particularly novel financial instruments or structures used?
• Was the financing/IPO successful despite being launched in a challenging overall environment?

The Pharma Company of the Year Award honors outstanding achievement by pharmaceutical companies over the qualifying period of July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024. This special award is chosen not by the independent judging panel but by our own senior editorial team, based on a variety of key metrics as below.

• Financial performance compared with the same period in previous fiscal year.
• How the company was able to advance its stated strategy, looking at most significant achievements over the year.
• Progress in emerging markets.
• New product launches including line-extensions and formulations.
• Advances in the drug pipeline, including major clinical trial reports.

You can nominate your own company but there is no shortlist and the winner is decided by our senior editorial team.

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 distinguished career in the biotech or pharmaceutical arena, primarily within the industry.

WHO CAN ENTER

We welcome nominees for consideration for this Award but the decision lies not with the independent judging panel but with our senior editorial team. The winner may be retired or semi-retired but will still be active in the industry in some capacity.

Any entry form should outline, in no more than 1,500 words, what the nominee has accomplished during his or her career and say why they are worthy of this Award.

All entry forms must include:

• The name of the nominee.
• The job title of the nominee (if applicable).
• The company name (if applicable).
• Your contact details.
• The contact details of the nominee.

You can submit nominations for this award but there is no shortlist and the winner is decided by our senior editorial team.

Please feel free to contact the Japanese Award Management Team [email protected]. If necessary, we will contact the judging committee for a response

Yes, if you meet the entry criteria, you are welcome to enter more than one category. Please submit an entry form for each category you wish to enter.

Yes, there is a section on the entry form for them to do so.

Yes, you can. However, you cannot enter a category in which you are sponsoring. For more details on sponsorship, please see the Sponsorship Guide.

After submitting your entry form, the Award Management Team will send you an email confirming receipt.