Chris Kilbee , Group Director of UBM’s Pharma portfolio, in an email interview with AD Pradeep Kumar talks about current trends and developments of the global pharma industry, novel features of this year's CPhI Worldwide event and also gives an overview of the last year's event. Chris Kilbee is responsible for the strategic development and delivery of the pharma portfolio globally. Working with the team in Holland, UBM colleagues from across the globe and key external partners, Chris is responsible for taking UBM’s Pharma portfolio to the next stage of its development globally and across platforms.
As the world's leading pharma networking event is unfolding in Frankfurt, what are your views on the current trends, developments and the future of the global pharma industry?
Current trends in the industry suggest more and more pharmaceutical companies are turning to outsourcing service providers for API development, formulation development and right through to full-scale commercial manufacture. Acknowledging this trend, CPhI Worldwide hosts a significant number of CMOs and CROs that offer outsourcing solutions.
Furthermore, the recent patent cliff has led to increased competition from generics manufacturers. The industry will see this trend augment, particularly as more pharmaceuticals come off patent over the next few years. Between now and 2016, there are around 27 well known patented drugs which will expire, including Xeloda and Symbicort.
The CPhI annual report released ahead of CPhI Worldwide,f eatures a series of articles by key opinion leaders representing the pharmaceutical industry. The report also provides an analysis on the current trends of the market and make predictive statements on the state of the future global pharma sector.
What are your comments on the prospects of global pharma ingredients sector?
Despite being dominated by North America, the global pharma ingredients sector is making way for emerging markets, such as Asia. The GBI research report on APIs noted that this region saw elevated growth in 2011, with a revenue share of 29.7 per cent. We can expect that this growth will continue to rise, particularly as pharmaceutical companies are constantly looking for ways to lower costs. The CPhI monthly survey on formulation and ingredients reaffirmed that India and China are thriving as the leading source for APIs. It is highly likely that this trend will continue, as more pharma companies will be looking to outsource ingredients.
What’s more, the new rules enforced by the EU on the importation of APIs into Europe means that international companies will have to adhere to higher standards and ensure absolute quality of their pharmaceutical active substances. It is now imperative for all imported APIs to be compliant with or equivalent to EU good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards. This means that we will be seeing all-round higher quality products within Europe, in particular.
What are your views on the role of Germany in the global pharma landscape?
Germany plays a vital role in the global pharma landscape, leading the way in pharmaceuticals in Western Europe in particular. Germany boasts of having the largest pharmaceutical market in this vicinity, estimated at a staggering $62 billion. Alongside this, Germany also possesses the largest generics market in Europe and is a world-class leader in pharmaceutical R&D. As the third-largest expenditure within the economy, in 2010 pharma R&D amounted to $6.9billion, which according to Deloitte’s 2013 industry outlook report, represents 9.4 percent of all R&D expenditure in the country. This signifies the importance of the sector in Germany and highlights the opportunities that CPhI Worldwide exhibitors will have to establish themselves within Western Europe’s “pharmaceutical capital”.
What are the novel features this year?
We have a number of new features at CPhI Worldwide this year. Ahead of the show we are running a ‘Pre-connect conference’. Comprised of six modules featuring API sourcing, Drug Delivery Systems and Biosimilars and Biobetters, the Pre-Connect Conference will be offering our attendees the exclusive opportunity to join senior executives and influential speakers from across the pharma industry. We have some highly esteemed representatives from Wockhardt, Novartis, Merck and PwC to name just a few, who will help be helping our attendees get a head start on networking in an informative and interactive environment.
One key theme at the CPhI Conference this year is the generics and super generics industry in emerging markets. The sessions have been set up in order to help attendees expand into or strengthen their position in developing regions and providing the unique opportunity to discover the key trends, drivers, challenges and opportunities in this market.
Building upon the layout of the event, this year’s edition introduces a Natural Extracts Zone and Logistics & Cold Chain Zone to further focus attention on the specialised products on offer.
The Natural Extracts Zone will be devoted to all things natural, incorporating companies that offer products including plant extracts, animal extracts, herbal teas, functional food ingredients, dietary supplement ingredients, nutraceutical ingredients, cosmeceutical ingredients, food additive and dietary fibre.
This year CPhI has launched Pharma Evolution- an online platform to provide a community base for CPhI exhibitors, visitors and the wider pharma industry. Designed to aide innovation between industry professionals, it provides real world best-practice advice. Anyone in the global pharma community can take advantage of Pharma Evolution to debate issues any time of the day, from any location on the globe.
CPhI Pharma Evolution will be present at this year’s show, blogging live and keeping attendees up to date on all the latest news.
CPhI is naturally evolving to become a provider of high quality content and, as a result, we have produced an annual report in order to analyse current and future pharmaceutical industry trends. The annual report consist of a series of articles, which have been written by our CPhI expert industry panel, comprised of senior level key opinion leaders. The ultimate goal of the panel’s inception is to utilise their respective areas of expertise to scrutinize how the industry will change across the coming 5-10 years, published in the report ahead of CPhI Worldwide.
Furthermore, this year provides the opportunity to take part in our newly established innovation tours. This novel feature will enable our attendees to see the show in a completely new light by taking a one-hour tour visiting top exhibitors in biopharma or packaging, who will be showcasing the latest innovations.
We will also be running In Focus Sessions, which will cover animal health, natural extracts and biopharma, providing an exceptional platform for those who would like to learn more about these key areas including market opportunities and challenges, regulation and outsourcing. Offering our attendees the chance to gain as much as they can from the show, we will also be conducting Lunchtime Series, which will provide an insight into the pharmaceutical markets of India, Brazil and more.
In conjunction with providing a meeting point to generate business opportunities, CPhI is committed to honouring the innovation and hard work that comes out of these ventures. It is for this reason that we hold the annual CPhI Pharma Awards, recognising thought leadership on a global scale and unveiling top pharma innovators to the industry. This year sees a change in categories for the awards – ‘Formulation’, ‘Process Development’ and ‘Packaging’ – with just one winner to each prestigious award. Winners will be announced at a ceremony during the evening on October 22. The ceremony will be held from 17.30 in the Europa Room at Messe Frankfurt and is open to all exhibitors, VIP pass holders and press.
What is the expected participation of visitors and exhibitors this year?
This year we are expecting more than 30,000 visitors from over 140 countries. The event will be hosting around 2,200 exhibitors.
What is the nature of Indian participation this year?
This year, CPhI Worldwide ICSE, P-MEC and InnoPack will once again include the Indian pavilion organized by IBEF, with more than 300 Indian exhibitors present. Exhibiting companies will include well-known names such as ACG Worldwide, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Mylan Laboratories, Piramal Healthcare and Jubilant.
How have the co-located events progressed during these years?
CPhI’s co-location with events ICSE, P-MEC and InnoPack highly reflects current industry trends. For example, ICSE is progressively becoming a significant collaborative event for CPhI Worldwide, particularly as big pharma is increasingly turning to outsourcing solution providers and CROs.
When it comes to the pharmaceutical industry, there is no denying the fundamental role that packaging, equipment and technology plays and InnoPack has become a pivotal focus point at the event in respond to this trend. Companies are looking to find pioneering solutions to their packaging needs in order to further drive innovation and augment growth within the pharmaceutical sector.
Further, this year sees a growing biopharma zone, showcasing the rise of the biopharmaceutical industry. The zone has been designed to help continually foster this climate of innovation and growth within this sector, and the show has evolved to provide a platform for different stakeholders across each stage of the biopharma value chain to begin working together – whether from drug discovery, specialised clinical research organisations (CRO) or biotech and CMO.
With the co-located events, CPhI provides the foremost pharmaceutical event which, to date, has hosted over 30,000 industry representatives. This year, it is expected that attendee rates will exceed this figure.
What are the prospects of Indo-German pharma trade?
It is likely that we will see increased trade between the Indian and German pharmaceutical sectors. For example, more German companies will look to buy contract sites, or source contract services, in India in order to lower drug production costs as well as providing them with a manufacturing base in Asia. Therefore, there will be an increase in contract services between the countries.
We know that Germany is a generics leader in Western Europe, however we expect to see some generics production going to India as healthcare costs rise in Germany. There may also be an increase in the number of patented products released from India to Germany, particularly as the markets grow and healthcare spending rises.
Could you give an overview of the last year's CPhI Worldwide event?
CPhI Worldwide once again delivered an exceptional platform for both growth and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, with more than 30,000 visitors and 2,200 exhibitors in attendance at last year’s show. The event also displayed the growing diversity of the pharma industry with record representation from over 140 countries on the show floor in Madrid. There were many successful business deals and blockbuster announcements made by attendees, including a new biocatalysis partnership between Almac and DSM and Novasep's €30m investment to make the "world's largest" chromatography based API production plant.