Ahead of Pharmapack Europe 2025 (January 21/22), We spoke with Jim Fries, CEO from RX360 on how the industry should approach developing proactive supplier collaborations for combination product success. At the event he will chair a panel discussion exploring the critical importance of strategic partnerships. Working through case studies and best practices on how pharmaceutical companies and suppliers can collaborate effectively to drive innovation, enhance communication, and scale opportunities. The session will cover valuable insights into building partnerships that accelerate time-to-market while maintaining high standards of quality and compliance

Pharmapack Europe will see 5700 attendees and 364 exhibitors attend at the heart of pharma’s drug delivery and packaging industry, with 70 sessions covering vital industry subjects.

Q) Start with a basic question, as to why partnering remains so important to driving industry innovation

“If you look at how complex our industry is and how long it takes to bring innovation to market this is the real reason why partnering is so important. Because when you set out on your journey, whatever the end goal might be, companies are realising they don’t have to do everything on their own. They don’t have to be the masters of every domain, and that best practices have emerged over the years thanks to multiple people working on the same idea and sharing and refining those learnings. So what we will try to do with this panel is to share the learnings from our experts about how they went about collaborating with diverse partners.”

Q what is RX360 role in industry collaboration

“As a nonprofit, we have two roles in the industry: one we bring together over 125 companies together and help them form working groups to share ideas – using confidentiality agreements – publishing white papers, sharing learnings and posing questions. The second part is we work with our members and multiple organisations on quality audits. So its two distinct fields of collaboration.”

Q) In an industry that is always striving to speed up timelines how do encourage partners to work with each other?

“I think the old adage of ‘less haste more speed’ is very applicable here. So we encourage groups to really be sure they are giving each processes the proper attention it needs and not rushing between ideation and implementation. Ensure that the time has been given to consider the implications. You do this by keeping an open dialogue, and I have no doubt that collaborations lead to better quality. It comes down to the idea of installing best practices and using the learning of others and building upon the collective knowledge of the industry. To give you an example, we will regularly go round the room to see how different people are approaching a problem and then all of sudden you will see this crystalise into a collective best practice that is greater than the sum of the individual ideas. We see this time and again in our working groups.”

Q) Can you give a real-world example of partnering to advance best practices, and any recent trends?

“It obviously came out of necessity, but one of the best examples I have ever seen, is after the lockdowns, when auditing become impossible. Literally the next morning we had ten or twelve of our members together in a zoom meeting and within 72 hours they had written the new protocols on conducting remote auditing.

In terms of recent trends, we are now exploring in great depth how the supply chain is secure right from the starting of the materials of the packaging in the final delivery of the product. That’s a very active discussion about ensuring quality from start to finish and have a couple groups tackling this from both logistics and the material quality perspective. So we have complete trust in the supply chain.”

Q) Dose partnering help prevent counterfeiting?

“Absolutely, collaborative discussion is one of the bets tools we have in working together to look at any gaps or weaknesses and building together a system that has integrity and brings a collective system into being.”

Q) How do you advice people to go about finding their best partner, and nay advice for attendees?

“The best way, well number one, events like Pharmapack are integral to that and then obviously groups like us will empower you to meet new networks. So getting out there with your peers is always the best place to start but then keep an open mind and always try and take on the underlying lessons of other people’s experience.

My advice for Pharpacak is, it’s one of few events where everyone across the show floor is incredibly welcoming, and I tell people to take advantage of that because it’s a great place to meet people. And, crucially, to have good quality follow-up, you can have so many active discussions and pick things up straight after a session or on stand. It’s an event with a very collective feel where lots of organic discussion take place so you can really get involved. So yes, plan for some things you ‘have to do’, but also give yourself the freedom so that you have time to get involved. It’s a very rewarding event.”