CPhI Worldwide 2014, held this year in Paris, was the largest ever event held by the organizers, with more than 36,000 attendees and 2,500 exhibitors. PharmaBoardroom was a media partner of this year’s event, and Frederic Boucheseiche, the founding partner and COO of Focus Reports and PharmaBoardroom, was invited to speak about partnerships in the pharmaceutical industry.

The event hosted senior-level decision makers and key players from over 140 countries, representing every step of the pharmaceutical supply chain, from drug discovery to finished dosage. CPhI Worldwide is also now acting as a global hub for insight and analysis and is increasing the key barometer of the industry’s future direction and health.

Key trends to emerge this year from the event’s pharma insight briefings and pre-connect conference were a noticeable increase in the overall outlook of the industry with record numbers of exhibitors, attendees and an increasing optimistic perspective regarding growth in new markets- particularly Brazil, Russia and Africa. Across several analyst presentations, during the pharma insight sessions at the show, API manufacturers were predicted to establish new hubs in Brazil, Mexico and South Korea thanks to cost advantages in India and China realigning with Western markets (due to rising regulatory and labor costs).

Africa was also a particularly hot region, with growth predicted to outstrip the rest of the world over the next five years. According to another presentation by Dan Rosen from IMS Health, Africa has six of the world’s top ten fastest growing economies and will be a key growth region for pharma companies to target. He stated that development in this region is not uniform however, and the best opportunities are in the ten largest African cities, which represent 20-30 percent (USD 6-9 billion) of the market. Companies that approach these regions with a committed, targeted and localized approach will quickly gain market share and access. Distribution is a key consideration and any company looking at market entry here must know how their portfolio aligns with the customer segments locally.

Vladimir Krasnikov, CEO of the Russian Pharmalicensing Group LLC, stated that across the Commonwealth of Independent States the impending Eurasian Economic Community (EEC) launch in January 2015 is being seen as a key milestone in establishing increased growth in the region, with Russia, the region’s central economic powerhouse, implementing a 2020 strategy that will encourage locally manufactured drugs.

From the conference floor, and in line with the findings of CPhI’s annual report, it is clear that CDMOs are all forming strategic rather than commodity based approaches with pharma- with both medium and large pharma moving away from cost concerns and targeting CMOs that best meet the internal capability and technology requirements.

Throughout CPhI Worldwide 2014, the event has harnessed its unique position as the meeting point for the global industry to establish and promote leading trends and analysis through its conference platforms. With four different exhibitions in one (CPhI Worldwide, P-MEC, InnoPack and ICSE) the event is now firmly established as the place to meet and do business, acting as a barometer to the world’s pharma industry. This year’s event held a record of 22 global pavilions to highlight different perspectives and countries from each continent- including China, India, USA and Brazil amongst others.

Frederic Boucheseiche, COO of Focus Reports and founder of PharmaBoardroom, said: “CPhI Worldwide is a great opportunity to meet and interact with the people that we created PharmaBoardroom for: executives in the pharmaceutical sector that want to know more about the hot topics in the healthcare and life sciences sectors all around the world. We hope that the partnership between PharmaBoardroom and CPhI will continue and grow for many years to come.”