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Pharma

9th HPAPI : Highly Potent Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs)

  • 16th – 17th September 2026
  • Italy flag Italy Milan

The 9th HPAPI Summit 2026 is the leading meeting for professionals in highly potent active pharmaceutical ingredients. With demand rising in oncology and targeted therapies, the summit spotlights the latest in process optimization, digital transformation, containment strategies, and global compliance.

Over two days of the #Ehpapi, gain insights from expert-led sessions and connect with global leaders to overcome challenges, ensure compliance, and shape the future of HPAPI development and production.

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About 9th HPAPI: Development and Manufacturing of Highly Potent Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (HPAPIs) I #Ehpapi 2026

Program-at-a-Glance  

DAY 1 — High-Potency Development, Containment & Risk Mitigation

  • HPAPI Development & CMC Foundations
  • Containment, Cleaning & Occupational Safety
  • Material Handling, Equipment & Facility Design
  • Outsourcing, CDMO Collaboration & Tech Transfer

Panel Discussion  & Business Dinner

DAY 2 — Process Development, Analytical, Quality & GMP Operations

  • Process Development for Highly Potent Compounds
  • Analytical, Quality, and Regulatory Standards
  • Automation, Digitalization & Future Technologies

Panel Discussion  & Business Lunch

 

Who Should Attend: 

Chief Executives, Directors, Vice Presidents, Department Heads, Leaders, and Managers specialising in:    

Key Specializations

  • Manufacturing & Processing
    • Cleaning Validation
    • Aseptic Processing
    • Continuous Processing
    • Manufacturing Science & Technology
    • Process Development
    • Scale-up Operations
    • Production
  • Quality & Compliance
    • Quality Assurance/Control (QA/QC)
    • Compliance
    • Validation
    • Process Monitoring & Control
    • Internal & External Audit
    • Regulatory Affairs
    • Risk Management
  • Health & Safety
    • Industrial Hygiene
    • Occupational Toxicology
    • Corporate Toxicology
    • Health, Safety & Environment (HSE)
    • Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS)
    • Hazard Assessments
  • Research & Development
    • API and HPAPI Development
    • Research & Development (R&D)
    • Analytical Development Laboratories
    • Chemistry
    • Formulation Development
    • CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls)
  • Business Strategy & Commercialization
    • Business Development
    • Strategic Development
    • Commercialization
    • Licensing
    • Outsourcing

Key Specializations

  • Manufacturing & Processing
    • Cleaning Validation
    • Aseptic Processing
    • Continuous Processing
    • Manufacturing Science & Technology
    • Process Development
    • Scale-up Operations
    • Production
  • Quality & Compliance
    • Quality Assurance/Control (QA/QC)
    • Compliance
    • Validation
    • Process Monitoring & Control
    • Internal & External Audit
    • Regulatory Affairs
    • Risk Management
  • Health & Safety
    • Industrial Hygiene
    • Occupational Toxicology
    • Corporate Toxicology
    • Health, Safety & Environment (HSE)
    • Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS)
    • Hazard Assessments
  • Research & Development
    • API and HPAPI Development
    • Research & Development (R&D)
    • Analytical Development Laboratories
    • Chemistry
    • Formulation Development
    • CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls)
  • Business Strategy & Commercialization
    • Business Development
    • Strategic Development
    • Commercialization
    • Licensing
    • Outsourcing

Secure your seat now - Register by April 30th! 

The Early Bird Offer expires in 112 days!

REQUEST A BROCHURE

To request an agenda for this Summit, please complete the details below. We will send you the agenda via email.

KEY PRACTICAL LEARNING POINTS

  • Advance CMC & Quality – Accelerate the development of gene and cell therapies with stronger CMC strategies and enhanced quality frameworks.
  • Regulatory & GMP Excellence – Stay aligned with CGTP safety, efficiency, and GMP standards to ensure compliant and reliable production.
  • Vector Production Scale-Up – Learn best practices to optimize, streamline, and scale vector manufacturing for higher performance and therapeutic impact.
  • Next-Gen Innovation – Explore cutting-edge technologies and integrated CQAs that drive efficiency, consistency, and innovation in GCT products.

Secure your seat now - Register by April 30th! 

The Early Bird Offer expires in 112 days!

Dr. Ulrich Rümenapp, DE

Senior Biotech Program Lead

Bayer AG

Dr. Ulrich Rümenapp works within the biological development organisation of Bayer AG, where he is responsible for the transfer of Bayer’s pipeline candidates (antibodies and antibody drug conjugates) to external manufacturing partners and regulatory submission and launch preparations. Prior to working in development, Ulrich was head of biotech projects in product supply biotech at Bayer, where he was responsible for contract manu­facturing partnerships in the field of biotech¬nological drug substances, drug products and interdisciplinary project management with the goal to ensure market supply. Before it was acquired by Bayer, he held a similar position at Schering AG, and before that he worked in the production and logistics department of Schering. Ulrich studied chemistry and holds a PhD in biosciences. He has several years of experience in academic research in the field of signal transduction and as an assistant teacher in the field of general pharmacology. Currently, his area of expertise is the setup and management of external relationships for the development and supply of bio-pharmaceutical products.

James L. Drinkwater, DE

Head of GMP Compliance, Honorary member of PHSS and member of PDA UK Chapter Board

Franz Ziel GmbH

James is based in the UK with a global support role at F Ziel (Germany) who manufacture technologies for environmental control in sterile pharmaceuticals & ATMP manufacturing. Together with the role at F Ziel James is Ex-Chairman and an honorary member of the Not-for-Profit PHSS: Pharmaceutical & Healthcare Sciences Society. Working experience includes 10 years in radio pharmaceutical manufacturing and over 30 years working in sterile medicinal product manufacturing support where increasingly aseptic processing applies to ATMPs, particularly Gene and Cell therapies. James is a Subject matter expert in Barrier Technology (Isolators and RABS) and Bio-decontamination with Hydrogen peroxide vapour (H202-VHP). James is also a Member of ISPE and PDA UK Chapter Board member.

Christa Myers, US

Sr. Fellow - Aseptic and Sterile Products

CRB

Christa Myers has been in the pharmaceutical industry for over 25 years and is a leader and subject matter expert. Christa is a well-recognized speaker at conferences and is frequently on-stage teaching others about regulatory requirements, operational issues and what to expect in the future of the in­dustry. Christa champions approaches that integrate strong project execution and technical solutions. Christa is on the steering committee for the ISPE community of practice for sterile products processing, a certified ISPE instructor of the sterile product processing baseline guide, the chair of ISPE’s women in pharma group, as well as an author of the most recent ISPE sterile processing baseline guide. Christa provides guidance and leadership to clients on how and when to utilise common or innovative solutions and continuously promotes the technical growth of people willing to learn more to advance the industry. She was recently awarded an honour as one of the 2019 Influential Women in Manufacturing.

Fred Ohsiek, US

Associate Director of Cleaning Validation

Eliquent Life Sciences

Fred Ohsiek, who earned his BS in Chemistry from University of South Florida, resides in the NC RDU area. He has 25 plus years of validation experience as an FTE and Consultant, while specializing in cleaning validation.

He has been fortunate to work for 7 major pharmaceuticals (Catalent, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Teva, Astellas, Bayer, and Novo Nordisk) where he was considered the cleaning validation SME in most of his roles. Working with various routes of administration (OSD, parenteral, topical, and softgels) in green and brown field small and large molecule manufacturing projects has provided Fred with a very broad range of experience.

Fred also obtained “cleaning chemistry” experience while working as a Sr Global Technical Manager at Ecolab (Life Science division).

As Associate Director of Cleaning Validation at Eliquent Life Sciences, he and his team support industry by authoring tailored justifications, reducing the validation footprint via risk assessments, creating startup CV programs, remediating legacy processes, and increasing manufacturing capability.

He was one of the authors of the ISPE Cleaning Validation Lifecycle – Application, Methods, and Controls guidance, and he regularly presents at conferences nationally and globally.

Justin Mason-Home, UK

Owner/Director

HPAPI Project Services Limited

Justin Mason-Home is an organic chemist with extensive health, safety, environmental, and chemical engineering experience in senior technical, legal, and commercial aspects of the pharmaceutical, biochemical, chemical, and other industries. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in the United Kingdom.

Justin started as a research chemist in the flavour and fragrance sector, researching and discovering new chemical synthetic routes to produce nature-identical flavour and fragrance components. In the fine chemical sector, he worked through scale-up (Kilo Lab then Pilot Plant) to full-scale manufacture. After a move to corporate environmental management, Justin was head-hunted into environmental consulting, heading a technical environmental engineering function.

He has since held senior positions and worked globally in potent biopharmaceutical occupational health and safety global environmental consulting, he's held a board level position in a biotechnology company, and has worked in corporate environmental management. Justin has been involved in and worked on potent and highly-potent API projects for more than 22 years and specialises in technical complex and strategic projects, including unique experience in managing sensitive highly-potent and toxic biopharmaceutical compound matters. Justin has chaired, presented at, and attended many HPAPI events and is a recognised expert in this area.

Richard Denk, CH

Senior Consultant, Aseptic Processing & Containment

Skan AG

Richard Denk has studied mechanical engineering and did an examination on experts of GMP, qualification and validation, pharmaceutical auditing, phar­maceutical engineering, and quality control at the University of Applied Sciences in Albstadt/Sigmaringen, Germany. Richard works at SKAN AG, headquartered in Allschwil, as the head of sales containment. He founded the expert con­tainment group of the ISPE DACH eight years ago. The containment group published the containment manual in September 2015. Richard has spent nearly 20 years working with highly active/highly hazardous substances and has developed the containment pyramid.

Dr. Jana Nunić, SL

Senior Occupational Toxicologist

Novartis

Jana Nunic is a Senior Occupational Toxicologist at Novartis, specializing in the derivation of health-based exposure limits (HBELs) for APIs.

With over a decade of experience in pharmaceutical toxicology, she has led health hazard assessments, supported HSE and QA functions, and contributed to regulatory compliance and risk assessment initiatives across the pharmaceutical industry.

Jana holds a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, an MSc in Toxicology, is a European Registered Toxicologist (ERT), and an active member of several European toxicology societies.

Morcos Loka, EG

Quality Senior Manager Biologics F&F and New Projects

Minapharm

Morcos Loka is a training manager and GMP advisor at Minapharm. Over 23 years, Morcos has played different production and quality roles in the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. His experience includes the manufacture of sterile and non-sterile products, handling of regulatory and customer audits, conducting internal and supplier audits, GMP gap analysis, GMP training, GMP consultation, establishing quality management systems, management review, quality metrics, establishing quality risk management system, QRM studies including manufacturing of HPAPIs in shared facilities, and design of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities.

Morcos has an MBA, a BSc with honours in pharmaceutical sciences, two postgraduate diplomas in total quality management (TQM) and train of trainer (ToT), and four professional certificates: ASQ Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE), Certified Quality Auditor (CQA), Certified Pharmaceutical GMP Professional (CPGP), and ISPE Certified Pharmaceutical Industry Professional (CPIP).

Morcos is an ASQ, ISPE, and PDA member. He participated in different ISPE and PDA publications and as a speaker in different IVT, ECA, PDA, and ISPE pharmaceutical industry conferences.

Dr. Ulrich Rümenapp, DE

Senior Biotech Program Lead

Bayer AG

James L. Drinkwater, DE

Head of GMP Compliance, Honorary member of PHSS and member of PDA UK Chapter Board

Franz Ziel GmbH

Christa Myers, US

Sr. Fellow - Aseptic and Sterile Products

CRB

Fred Ohsiek, US

Associate Director of Cleaning Validation

Eliquent Life Sciences

Justin Mason-Home, UK

Owner/Director

HPAPI Project Services Limited

Richard Denk, CH

Senior Consultant, Aseptic Processing & Containment

Skan AG

Dr. Jana Nunić, SL

Senior Occupational Toxicologist

Novartis

Morcos Loka, EG

Quality Senior Manager Biologics F&F and New Projects

Minapharm

BROCHURE

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