Frankfurt is Pharma

CPhI Worldwide, and the co-located events of ICSE, P-MEC and InnoPack, are all just around the corner and there is a high sense of expectation from attendees and exhibitors alike—as well as the Pharmaceutical Technology Europe team! For this year’s edition of events, held from 25-27 October at Messe Frankfurt in Germany, the organisers have confirmed a 13% increase in exhibitors and offer projections of over 29,000 attendees—numbers that surpass the record created at the 2010 event in Paris.

“This year's events forecasted attendance numbers show a true reflection of the positive changes in the pharmaceutical market. As the industry has slowly recovered from the downturn, the ways of doing business are evolving, and we feel that we have been able to mirror this during event planning. CPhI, ICSE, P-MEC Europe and InnoPack all provide comprehensive programs that respond to the demands of the changing market. Overall, we aim to keep our portfolio structured, yet fluid, so that we are able to provide exhibitors and visitors with the most value for their investment,” said Greg Kerwin, Pharma Portfolio Director for UBM Live.

The line-up sees many new and returning features that should help visitors to this year’s show maximise their precious time at what can be an overwhelmingly large event. Newly introduced features to look out for include the Lunchtime Education Series, the stand-alone InnoPack event and the LABWorld Pavilion within P-MEC Europe.

New and improved

The Lunchtime Education Series will feature six interactive sessions from 12:00–15:30 each day that plan to address some key issues and trends currently affecting the pharma market in addition to networking opportunities. Topics span a wide range from GMP practices in emerging markets through to innovation in drug delivery, as well as a number of business oriented sessions, so there is no doubt something there for most attendees.

InnoPack also debuts in 2011 to showcase, as the name suggests, innovative packaging resources and solutions in an area that is rapidly becoming a strong differentiating factor for pharma companies. Anti-counterfeiting, a current hot topic, is addressed by the even more niche “Labelling Zone” at InnoPack, where “track-and-trace” and other technologies will be featured

P-MEC Europe also gets an upgrade with the LABWorld Pavilion, which will offer smaller-scale resources in high technology areas in the pharma and biopharma laboratory space, including instrumental analysis, measuring and testing, materials testing and quality control.

Tried and tested

The Pre-Show Conference Series makes a return for 2011 and will be open on Oct. 24, one day before the main events begin. Featuring speakers from the likes of GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sanofi, the two strategic forums will address how the pharma industry can fully take advantage of new market developments and drive competitive advantage through global sourcing and contracting.

Finally, as with all the top events, there must be an awards ceremony, and the popular CPhI Innovation Awards, which debuted in 2010, is back again this year to celebrate innovative and commercially scalable technologies - make sure you follow us on Twitter and look out for following editions of this newsletter to keep updated on that front!

For more information on the program of events, please see www.cphi.com, www.icse.com, www.p-mec.com and www.innopack-pharma.com.