Lessons in efficiency

I recently attended the annual CPhI exhibition in Paris, which turned out to be a great event for the PTE team and I. I always enjoy meeting with our readers, our valued advertisers and supporters of the publication, but it was incredibly refreshing to listen to the genuinely optimistic messages from the companies that I spoke with. I was hearing murmurs of investment, R&D and even expansion. Is our industry turning a corner? It certainly seems that way. Of course, the usual issues have not gone away; companies operating in all sectors are acutely aware of the need to reduce costs wherever possible and increase efficiencies. Indeed, the pharma industry has made significant progress in achieving these aims and continues to set the bar high for streamlining, restructuring and achieving excellence in efficiency.

Fedra Pavlou

I only wish that UK airports would place as much emphasis on efficiency as our own industry. Only yesterday I was travelling back with a colleague of mine from Italy to my local airport in the North of England via London's Gatwick airport. The fact that our flight was delayed gave us little time (15 minutes in fact) to make the connection, which involved a frantic run from one end of the terminal through passport control and back through security to the gate that was a 5 minute walk (or a 2 minute sprint) to the gate. We were grateful that our plane had waited for us before closing the gate; however, not so grateful when we realised that we had boarded the same plane that brought us into the UK from Italy. Once we managed to catch our breath we did find the whole situation incredibly amusing but I have to say, in these times of economic uncertainty, it would make sense that efficiency is at the top of most management teams' list of priorities. I think some industries need to take a leaf out of pharma's book, the transport industry being one.

Thanks again to those that took the time to meet with my colleagues and I in Paris; as always, it was a pleasure.

Best wishes,

Fedra Pavlou, Editor-in-Chief