CPhI Korea sees 25% growth as domestic pharma economy forecast to become 7th globally by 2020

CPhI Korea – hosted by UBM EMEA and co-organised with the UBM Korea Corporation and Korean Pharmaceutical Traders Association (KPTA) – is set to return to Seoul on the 23rd-25th August 2016 for its third year in a row.

The trade show is experiencing a huge surge in interest; with over 5000 pharma professionals (up 25% from last year) from 50 different countries envisaged to converge at the COEX centre during the three-day event. 

The key factors behind the diversification of pharmaceutical opportunities in the country are the rapid expansion of the biosimilar sector and a continued modernisation across its industry. Investments into the sector’s development by big players like Celltrion, along with the Government’s capital and regulatory assistance, are predicted to facilitate the biosimilar market’s growth to $1.2 billion by 2019, with a global market share of 22% by 2020.

CPhI Korea is designed to harness this potential and will once again co-locate with ICSE, P-MEC and BioPh, along with the inaugural Health Ingredients (Hi) Korea. The introduction of nutraceuticals, functional food, beverages, and dietary supplements – a sector that grew 11.5% last year to reach $1.7 billion – will enhance the already-diverse range of suppliers on offer at CPhI Korea.

Moreover, large companies are investing, with R&D expenditure rising by 19% and exports by 32.6% in the last year. In fact, the overall pharma market is expected to exceed $24.3 billion by 2020.

CPhI Korea provides a dynamic meeting place for a wide range of industry suppliers to engage with purchasers and decision makers from the pharmaceutical industry, with highlights in 2016 including:

• CPhI Korea Conference – a major part of the event that gives a realistic and holistic assessment of the industry’s present state and future trends.
• Exhibitor Showcases – provide an extra meeting place between exhibitors, visitors and press on the show floor. Participants such as Bision Biochem, KBI Biopharma and Malvern Korea, will be given 45-minute platforms to promote their new products, services, and innovations to the global and regional industry. 
• 1:1 Business Matchmaking – a free online service designed to pre-arrange 1-to-1 meetings and business relationships.

Remarkably, the exhibitor base will grow nearly 10% in 2016 to 150, in response to last year’s stellar event, at which attendee numbers grew by 97%. Additionally, thanks to the internationalisation of Korean pharma, overseas buyer attendees have also increased by 42%.

Beyond the exhibition, a high-content conference expands on the theme of internationalisation, key sessions include: ‘The Latest Information on Japan Pharmacopoeia and Master Files’; ‘The success strategy to enter EU market with some cases of most frequent mistakes for (Korean) pharmaceutical companies with respect to API’s used’; ‘Generic Medicines: Registration and Pricing Policies in Europe’; and ‘Pharmaceutical Market in China’. 

“At CPhI Korea, we could effectively promote our finished products to the Korean market. We had hundreds of meetings and signed lots of contracts, so we’ll 100% participate next year again,” said Mr. Romanenko Sergey, Manager on foreign economic affairs at Sibpribor

The event has been undertaken with the help of sponsors: MFDS (Ministry of Food and Drug Safety), Chungbuk Technopark, KBIZ (Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business), KOBIA (Korea Biomedicine Industry Association), KDRA (Korea Drug Research Association) and KIT (Korea Institute of Technology).

Rutger Oudejans, Brand Director Pharma at UBM EMEA commented: “Korea has been one of the fastest developing and growing events in the CPhI portfolio; in just 3-years, it has grown to have executives and buyers attend from all over the world, with 5000 attendees and 180 exhibitors expected in 2016. CPhI plays an integral role in furthering the Korean pharma economy and we continue to develop the platform alongside the industry, with a health ingredients zone added this year. The event also provides a huge content platform to help both attendees and exhibitors make better-informed decisions and see the full scope of potential in the region”.

Register online for CPhI Korea 2016, free of charge, at: www.cphi.com/korea