22 years of CPhI

Twenty-two year ago, a small international event dedicated to ingredients and intermediates was held in Frankfurt. The show played host to 16 exhibitors and 250 delegates.

This October, the same event will be held in Frankfurt once again. This time, however, the organisers are expecting 1900 exhibitors and 28,500 industry professionals from more than 120 countries.

CPhI has come a long way since its debut in 1990 and is now considered one of the European pharma industry’s most important and premier events. From 1990 to 2007, CPhI grew at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 16%. The 2008 event attracted a record 1700 exhibitors and more than 25,000 attendees from 60 countries, but these records are being smashed year on year. Last year’s 2010 CPhI event was held in Paris and featured a new zoned layout that made it easer for visitors to find exactly what they were looking for. There more than 1900 exhibitors and attendee numbers rose by approximately 14% over 2009.

Over the years, the show has made its mark on several European cities including Amsterdam, Belgium, London, Madrid, Milan and Paris. Although Frankfurt is a popular location for European trade shows, it hasn’t hosted CPhI since 2008.

"Frankfurt was the venue for the first ever CPhI Worldwide in 1990 and has consistently proved popular among our exhibitors and visitors, given the prominence of Germany in the global chemicals industry,” Eliane van Doorn, UBM International Media's Group Director for Pharma events, said in a statement. “With total sales of euro 145.2 billion in 2009, Germany is ranked number one in Europe and number four worldwide, with leading fine chemicals companies such as BASF, Bayer and Evonik Industries all ranking in the top twenty highest grossing suppliers in the world. Companies like these are the reason why Germany has been considered a true powerhouse in the pharmaceutical and fine chemicals industries for the last decade and why Frankfurt is an ideal host city for the CPhI events cluster."

Cluster is certainly the right word. CPhI is no longer just about ingredients; it now involves several collocated events: ICSE, P-MEC, BioPh and, new for this year, InnoPack.

ICSE for contract services was the first collocated event to join CPhI with its debut in 2001 in London with 14 exhibitors. By 2010, the show had grown to include nearly 290 exhibitors and is considered an integral part of CPhI. Last year, ICSE was expanded to include two new zones: the Contract Research Zone and the Packaging Zone.

2006 saw the debut of P-MEC in Paris for pharmaceutical machinery and equipment. Initially, the event featured 16 exhibitors but 2009’s event in Madrid saw this rise to 50. The event now covers all aspects of pharma and biotech equipment and technology, from packaging machinery to analytical technologies and track and trace systems. In 2010, P-MEC saw a growth of 24% compared with 2009.

BioPh for the biopharmaceutical industry made its first appearance in Madrid in 2009 to reflect the increasing convergence of pharma and biotech business models in drug innovation. According to the organisers, the event was a great success and attracted more than 800 dedicated visitors.

This year will see the debut of a new collocated event for packaging. InnoPack is expected to be triple the size of last year’s Packaging Pavilion and will include a labelling zone, a speakers’ corner and a dedicated packaging feature area that will offer opportunities for networking.

Global reach

CPhI has always been an international show. Its location in Europe, however, inevitably makes it more difficult and expensive for visitors to attend from regions such as Asia and South America. In the last decade, CPhI has expanded its global reach by initiating events in China, Japan, India and South America.

CPhI China launched in 2001, with ICSE following in 2005. The next event in June 2012 (to be held in Shanghai) is expected to attract 1700 exhibitors and 27000 attendees — almost as many as the show in Europe!

CPhI Japan was first held in 2005 and also includes the collocated events ICSE, P-MEC and BioPh. The event attracts more than 14000 visitors and exhibitors.

The proceeding year in 2006, CPhI India was launched with 325 exhibitors and 11,000 attendees — the largest ever debut for a CPhI show. Like CPhI China, the India event has grown quickly. In 2010, the event attracted more than 26,000 attendees from 86 countries. The 2011 event is due to be held in November.

The latest addition to the CPhI name is CPhI South America, which debuted in 2008 in Brazil with more than 180 exhibitors and 4500 attendees. It’s early days for this event but it is seeing growing interest every year — particularly as Brazil is seen as one of the most important and fastest growing emerging markets.