It's showtime

The first 2 weeks of October witnessed the closure of CPhI (30 September–2 October) and the whole of Biotechnica (7–9 October). Pharmaceutical Technology Europe had a presence at both events, which took place in Frankfurt and Hanover (both Germany), respectively. With record-breaking numbers of attendees, roundtables and conferences of the highest quality, and exhibitors from bio and pharma companies from all over the world, these two events are a must in the calendars of many in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.

Bibiana Campos-Seijo

CPhI is by far the bigger of the two events and, although I was aware of its size and the numbers involved, I was not ready for what I encountered: halls and more halls connected by escalators in extremely long corridors and stands busy with the activity generated by swarms of visitors. It reminded me of an anthill but, as one would expect in an anthill, the chaos was only surface deep; behind which was perfect organization and complete control. I was very impressed and must congratulate the organizers on their success.

During CPhI, I was very fortunate to attend the Breakfast Briefings, where Guy Villax, CEO of Hovione, not only delivered an excellent presentation on APIs issues, but also provided me with a wonderful quote. On the issue of drug traceability he compared the food industry, where very tough control measures were imposed because of the BSE crisis, with the pharma industry that, in spite of incidents such as the heparin scare, fails once more to learn the lesson. He concluded: "There is better traceability between a cow and your steak than between an aspirin and its producer."

Biotechnica, gathered the crème-de-la- crème of the biotech world. Now on an annual basis, it not only keeps exceeding expectations in terms of participation, but has also succeeded in establishing a wonderful synergy between industry and academia, with a large number of demonstrations and workshops on offer for all the students invited to the event. On a different note, something that caught everybody's attention at the exhibition hall was the sponsored remote-controlled manta ray that hovered gracefully and silently over our heads. It moved very slowly and its movements had some strange hypnotic effect... I want one!

We hope that everybody had a very successful and enjoyable time at CPhI and Biotechnica and are looking forward to seeing you all again next year!

During November, we will be uploading interviews, stories and personal reviews from our time at CPhI and Biotechnica onto our webiste (www.ptemag.com), so please keep an eye on our Out and About section (www.ptemag.com/outandabout).

Dr Bibiana Campos-Seijo

Send your questions and comments by email to bcampos.seijo@advanstar.com