Six companies were named as INTERPHEX Exhibitor Award winners this morning to kick off the start of the 2017 International Pharmaceutical Expo at the Javits Center in New York City. The show runs through March 23.

The top honors went to technology on display from Asahi Kasei Bioprocess; Bio-Rad Laboratories; Nemera; Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group; Bausch & Ströebel Machine Company, and Millipore-Sigma.

The annual expo, sponsored by the Parenteral Drug Association (PDA), is dedicated to pharmaceutical and biotechnology innovation, technology, and knowledge from development through commercialization. The awards, sponsored by Pharmaceutical Processing, were offered in six categories: Best in Show; Best New Product/Service; Editor’s Choice; Best Technological Innovation; Efficiency Champion, and Biotech Innovation Award.

This year’s winners by category are:

Best in Show: Asahi Kasei Bioprocess (Booth No. 3725)

The time-saving IBD 1K System is a compact, standard offering of the existing Inline Buffer Dilution technology. The new system controls pH and conductivity simultaneously with accuracy. It combines PAT with a patent-pending dynamic inline mixer so that conductivity and pH set points can be achieved more rapidly, with greater precision, and at higher dilution factors. The system produces diluted, pH-adjusted buffers at dilution factors of up to 20X so you can maximize resource allocation in your purification suite.

The Best in Show Award recognizes accomplishments and display in the use of knowledge, innovation, and state-of-the-art technologies to achieve extraordinary levels of quality, production goals, and objectives—ultimately transforming critical and affordable life-enhancing ideas to finished drug products.

Best New Product/Service: Bio-Rad Laboratories (Booth No. 3823

The ZE5 Cell Analyzer is an innovative new flow cytometer with flexible configurations to meet a broad range of experimental complexities and throughput needs, providing the industry with a truly expandable flow cytometer. This flexibility makes the ZE5 Analyzer accessible for novice users yet flexible enough for the most experienced professionals. A fully integrated sample loader with the ability to handle tubes or plates without an instrument hardware change enables true walk-away functionality.

The Best New Product/Service Award is given to the exhibitor that encourages, develops, and features the very best in new products or services showcasing knowledge, innovation, and state-of-the-art technologies leading to significant business, economic, or manufacturing benefits for the pharma and bio industries.

Editor’s Choice (sponsored by Pharmaceutical Processing): Nemera (Booth No. 1636)

The Safelia Autoinjector, declined in 1ml and 2.25m platforms for prefilled syringes, is able to administer high volumes, high viscosities and through thinner needles. It has been designed to ease patient self-injection experience and to deliver, in glass syringes, fluid formulations to challenging drugs (viscous, sustain released, concentrated, in subcutaneous or intramuscular layers, in large volumes).

The Editor of Pharmaceutical Processing awards the Editor’s Choice Award, which is based upon her view of the best in exhibiting in Knowledge, Innovation, and Technologies within the pharma and biopharma industries.

Best Technologies Innovation: Watson-Marlow Fluid Technology Group (Booth No. 2833)

The Quantum Pump offers a step change in pump technology for bioprocessing enabling higher downstream process yields throughout the pressure range exceeding the performance of any other pump available. The new bioprocessing pump with patented single-use technology provides exceptional downstream process performance, delivering higher yields and improved flow linearity throughout the 44 Psi pressure range. This product out performs any other bioprocessing pump available, with ultra-low shear and a class leading 4000:1 turn down ratio.

The Best Technologies Innovation Award recognizes cutting-edge technologies, either new technologies or a novel implementation of existing technologies that have the potential to change the way pharma/bio companies operate.

INTERPHEX Efficiency Champion: Bausch & Ströebel Machine Company (Booth No. 2505B)

The KCP model offers a flexible filling platform with four configurable modular processing stations and can simulate a variety of different industry standard dosing, closure placement, sealing, and inspection arrangements currently used in commercial production of parenteral products. With two clean room robots, the filling and closing machine provides a wide range of applications for small batch production or process and product development. Virtually any customary container can be processed on the line with minimal changeover time. Completely different work steps can be integrated in the work flow.

The INTERPHEX Efficiency Champion Award is given to an exhibitor whose product or service understands the need for integrated efficiencies in processes and supports the fast pacing of the pharma/bio industry—whether in research, development, or commercial-scale production.

Biotech Innovation: MilliporeSigma (Booth Nos. 1265, 2841)

The Pellicon 3 ultrafiltration cassettes with Biomax membrane and D Screen geometry are used downstream to efficiently process high-viscosity therapeutic protein formulations resulting in higher final product concentrations needed for injectable therapies. Prior to ultrafiltration, the drug is very pure but needs to be concentrated and formulated to the final condition. For the patient and physician, injectables offer greater convenience, increased compliance and lower costs. The manufacturer achieves more efficient processing with the Pellicon 3 cassettes and has the ability to store and transport drug substance at higher concentrations which saves time and money.

The Biotech Innovation Award acknowledges an exhibitor’s innovative application to a given product or service that not only addresses an industry need, but does so in such a way as to exceed previous standards or applications—thereby making the given process simpler, smoother, or easier to navigate.

The judges on this year’s Exhibitor Awards panel were Andrew Berg, Editorial Director, Pharmaceutical Processing; David Hall, Vice President of Sales, Parenteral Drug Association (PDA), Christa Myers, Associate/Senior Pharmaceutical Engineering Specialist, CRB; Matthew vonEsch, Senior Director, Manufacturing, Exelead; Gil Roth, Founder and President, Pharma & Biopharma Outsourcing Association (PBOA); Barry Holtz, Principal, Holtz Biopharma Consulting and Eric Jayjock, PhD, Director of Continuous Manufacturing, Patheon.

INTERPHEX represents the future of pharmaceutical, biotech and device development and manufacturing innovation, offering access to new business trends and strategies, cutting-edge technical sessions and state-of-the-art technologies, products and services to reduce costs, increase productivity and maximize efficiency. INTERPHEX is taking place March 21-23, 2017 at the Javits Center in New York, New York.