The Government of Gujarat has signed an agreement with the US-based trade exhibition organiser United Business Media (UBM) and the pharmaceutical and chemicals industry associations in the state to organise the Indian edition of the major international trade exhibition - Informex USA - in Gujarat in March 2009.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the UBM, the parent company of CMP Information (CMPI) which organises the event in USA, the state health ministry and the pharma and chemical industry associations was signed in the middle of July. As per the agreement, the government will facilitate the UBM to organise a high profile Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) conclave coinciding to the Vibrant Gujarat 2009 - an annual investment meet sponsored by state government - and a three day exhibition for pharma and chemical industry from March 12 to 14, 2009.

The state government has formed an organising committee with Mona Khandar IAS, joint secretary, Department of Health as the chairperson and an advisory committee is created consisting of members from the industry headed by Pankaj Patel, chairman and managing director (CMD) of Cadila Healthcare, as the chairman.

The officials from state ministry of health conducted a stakeholders' meeting last month to gather opinion of industry associations like Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association (IDMA), Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (BDMA), Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry (CIPI) and the speciality chemicals associations.

"This is for the first time the Informex event is to be conducted outside US and we are proud to host the event in collaboration with UBM. Our talks with the industry came out well and pharma and chemicals industry expressed their interest to join with our efforts.
The event, designed as a business-to-business exhibition, will cover various aspects related to pharmaceutical, speciality chemicals and biotech industry," said H G Koshia, joint commissioner, Gujarat Food and Drugs Control Administration (FDCA) and member of the organising committee.

Almost 150 companies and over 1,000 of its representatives will be attending the Indian event, according to the ministry sources. Currently, Informex USA is the leading specialty and custom chemical trade show and exhibition in the United States. UMB, the UK-based provider of business information services, acquired Informex from the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA) for US$ 24 million cash at closing in 2005. With the acquisition, CMP Information division of UBM became the world leader in chemicals industry events, according to early reports.