CPhI Korea, hosted by UBM EMEA and co-organised with the UBM Korea Corporation and Korea Pharmaceutical Traders Association (KPTA), is set to return to Seoul from August 28 to 30, 2018 for its fifth year in a row. The trade show is experiencing a huge surge in interest; with over 5,000 pharma professionals from 50 different countries expected to converge at the COEX centre during the three-day event.

CPhI Korea 2017 featured impressive international participation with a total of 159 exhibiting companies, including 56 domestic companies and 119 from overseas. The three-day event attracted 4,299 visitors and buyers from 57 countries, including 903 overseas buyers, accounting for 21 per cent of total attendees.

Recently, Korean pharmaceutical companies are accelerating overseas market expansion by increasing overseas investments through establishing an overseas branch, factories, and etc, due to the market saturation in Korea. Numbers also prove this trend. Domestic companies are continuously undergoing transition into export-oriented structure by transcending the boundaries of the domestic market. According to KPTA, the export of domestic finished products is experiencing strong growth with total volume of US$ 2.6 billion in 2017. Also, the export of domestic APIs is showing steady growth with total volume of US$ 1.5 billion in 2017.

Reflecting this market trend, CPhI Korea is introducing a new co-located event entirely dedicated to Finished Dosage Formulation (FDF). The event targets different segments of the formulation supply chain including pharma, contract manufacturing, out-licensing specialists, end product distributors, generic pharma companies, and home markets. Solid dose, semi-solids, liquids, sprays, and sterile forms including tablets, capsules, gels, parenteral drugs, vials, patches, creams, inhalation, nasal, sublingual, and suppository forms will be represented. ICSE(Contract service), P-MEC(Pharmaceutical machineries & Lab equipments), BioPh (biopharmaceuticals), and Hi(Heath Ingredients) will also be held together.

CPhI Korea 2018 will provide the networking opportunities between exhibitors and buyers through buyer invitation programme and 1:1 online business matchmaking programme.

During the 2017 show period, exhibitors had business meetings with invited buyers from Spain, Ukraine, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Vietnam, and the programme earned favourable reviews from both exhibitors and buyers.

The event has been undertaken with the help of sponsors: MFDS (Ministry of Food and Drug Safety), Chungbuk Technopark, KOBIA (Korea Biomedicine Industry Association), and KDRA (Korea Drug Research Association).