PMEA 2026 welcomes Simon Bates as new Chair of the judging panel

The Pharmaceutical Market Excellence Awards (PMEAs) return for the 26th year in November to celebrate excellence within the pharmaceutical, biotech and medtech sectors. This year, we welcome Simon Bates as the new Chair of the judging panel, someone who has been a judge and steering group member for several years.

PMEA recognition rewards companies for their innovative customer-centric business practices, to ensure treatments, solutions and education deliver the most meaningful outcomes for patients. The Awards recognise excellence in global, regional and local work, by large and small companies, and cross-healthcare partnerships.

They reflect the dynamic healthcare environment and the industry’s development of new and smarter ways to improve patient care and outcomes, as well as providing greater value for healthcare providers and payers.

Each year, the steering group and PMEA team revises the award categories and programme to ensure that the Awards continue to be specifically designed to commend excellence, best practice and innovation.

“There are two themes to call out that I hope to drive in my tenure as PMEA Chair. First, ‘Innovation beyond the historic silos within a life sciences company’. Always respecting there is legitimate separation of functions, but challenging these as the healthcare ecosystems we serve are evolving dramatically, not least in our digital, data and AI-driven world. And second, ‘Broadening the PMEA network to include more smaller and medium-sized companies from across the globe’, so that countries can learn from each other; and being ‘smaller or newer’ can often mean going faster to challenge established ways of working.”

To expand on how PMEA recognition supports companies and agencies, Simon asked two companies, Roche and Alnylam, about their experiences of entering the PMEAs:

Why did you submit your entry, Africa Breast Cancer Ambition, to the PMEAs?
Roche: We submitted the Africa Breast Cancer Ambition (ABCA) initiative because the PMEAs are widely regarded as the industry’s gold standard for recognising genuine innovation in healthcare delivery. ABCA is unique in its scale – spanning multiple countries and years – and in the rigorous way in which it has been executed. It is, at its core, a bold and singular plan. There were no comparable programmes against which it could be benchmarked, and that in itself speaks to the originality at the heart of what we set out to do. The PMEAs gave us the professional rigour and the platform to demonstrate how we are redefining the standard of care in underserved markets – and to show the world that even the most complex challenges can be solved through sophisticated, long-term partnerships. The ambition behind ABCA and the ethos of the PMEAs are, quite simply, perfectly aligned.

How did being part of the PMEAs help Roche, the ABCA programme and your team members?

Roche: Winning gave Roche’s leadership something invaluable: a fundamental validation of their strategic decision to transform the breast cancer ecosystem across Africa. It served as a powerful proof of concept – confirmation that our long-term investment is not only the right path, but a replicable model for others to follow.

For the team, the recognition was deeply meaningful. Seeing our patient success metrics withstand the rigorous scrutiny of the PMEA judges was profoundly energising. Robust, measurable patient outcomes are often missing from award submissions – and capturing them meaningfully in low- and middle-income countries is especially challenging. That our results held up so strongly has renewed our commitment to scaling this model further.

This ecosystem-wide approach is already demonstrating what becomes possible when stakeholders align around shared value: better outcomes for patients, stronger health systems for communities and a sustainable growth model for industry. It is a blueprint with the potential to extend far beyond breast cancer – one that could transform the broader non-communicable disease landscape across Africa. This award recognises the courage it takes to reimagine what partnership can look like. It belongs equally to the governments, healthcare workers, NGOs and community leaders who make this work real every single day.

What were your external partners’ involvement/reactions to your success in the PMEAs?

Roche: The response from our external partners has been nothing short of overwhelming. The LinkedIn post by our Area Head, Maturin Tchoumi, sharing the news garnered over 2,700 reactions and attracted approaches from new stakeholders across technology, finance and healthcare – all eager to learn more or explore how they might contribute.

For our partners, it has served as a proof of concept: evidence that a deeply focused, collaborative approach can transcend borders and sustain long-term momentum when driven by a genuinely virtuous ambition. That shared energy is already strengthening local collaborations with governments and elevating breast cancer higher on the regional health agenda.

Ultimately, this award validates the courage required to rethink what health partnerships in Africa can be – and honours the tireless effort of everyone who makes this ecosystemic model a reality, day after day.

How did you find the process and the event?

Roche: The process was remarkably smooth from start to finish. Instructions and templates were clear at every stage, the online submission tool was intuitive and the PMEA team was consistently responsive and helpful whenever questions arose.

The event itself was a genuine highlight – a rare opportunity to witness the most forward-thinking work happening across the industry. Meeting peers from across the ecosystem was equally enriching. It was particularly gratifying to see how powerfully the ABCA approach resonated in a room full of global health leaders. The conversations it sparked confirmed what we have always believed: that what we are building in Africa matters well beyond Africa.

Would you recommend other Roche teams to enter?

Roche: Absolutely – without hesitation. Participating is an invaluable exercise in measuring real-world impact and pressure-testing the story you tell about your own work. For any team within Roche that is pushing boundaries to drive innovation in healthcare delivery, the PMEAs offer the visibility and external validation needed to turn a local success story into a global benchmark. If you are doing work you believe in, this is the platform to share it.

Simon also asked Alnylam about the company’s experiences of entering for the first time last year:

Why did you enter the PMEAs (I believe for first time)?

Alnylam: 2025 was a landmark year for Alnylam globally and in the UK, we’d delivered some brilliant outcomes in reaching HCPs and patients that we were really proud of.

It’s a competitive marketplace – we want to hire and retain the best talent in the industry and have award-winning creative partners clamouring to work with us despite our size, so it felt like the right time to throw our hat into the PMEA ring.

How did being part of the PMEAs help Alnylam and your team members?

Alnylam: Our Challenge Accepted mantra is tangible in all that we do at Alnylam, and the team was 100% all-in during the submission process. Some of our team members had been PMEA Winners at previous companies so knew the feeling of pride and motivation that comes when your work is judged by peers to have delivered campaigns and outcomes we all wish we’d been part of.

How did you find the process and the event?

Alnylam: The process was intense and scrappy in the few days before the deadline, but we had a clear story to tell and we do tend to thrive under pressure! It was definitely a case of ‘all hands on deck’ and the cross-functional team worked smartly with our agency partner to agree roles – even our global CEO made time to be filmed at very short notice! We felt good about our work and having a strong UK & Ireland team presence at the Awards event, including R&D, HR, market access and corporate comms business partners, was fantastic – a wonderful night of team camaraderie that we will remember for a long time.

Would you recommend that other medium-sized companies should enter?

Alnylam: If you are generating industry-leading results or innovative campaigns that ultimately contribute to better patient outcomes, then yes, the team who delivers it deserve to be professionally recognised and the work applauded and (likely) emulated.

Being recognised through the PMEAs is regarded as a significant achievement for those behind the initiatives and success can be a key driver for business growth as well as for building morale with both internal and external stakeholders.

Crucially, entrants benefit from a comprehensive system put in place to ensure confidentiality at every stage of the judging process. They are also given full control over the information disclosed when the results are published.

Following the rigorous judging process, the PMEAs culminate in a dinner and awards presentation held in London each November.

To find out more about submitting an entry for the 2026 Awards, go to pmea.awardsplatform.com