The recently hosted CPhI & P-MEC China 2020 – organized by Informa Markets and CCCMHPIE and co-organized by Shanghai Sinoexpo Informa Markets International Exhibition Co., Ltd. – attracted a remarkable 46,157 visits of professional pharma visitors, including 5,105 international attendees taking part online.
The hybrid event has helped stimulate renewed growth and partnerships across the pharma supply chain, with the pharma industry looking well positioned for 2021. It also provided a welcome glimpse of how returning international pharma events will fuel a boom for the global industry in 2021.
With 2020 seeing the majority of global pharma events postponed, there was a huge interest in exhibiting, learning and connecting at large scale event providing covid-secure standards. The ingredients, machinery and manufacturing sectors reported particularly robust attendance – with full implementation of the Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) system, coupled with priority review pathways from the NMPA (National Medical Products Administration) driving much new demand.
In fact, 2,958 companies from the pharma supply chain attended – including Pfizer, Sanofi, Capsugel, Dupont, Merck, BASF, Fosun Pharma, Hengrui Medicine, Yangtze River Pharmaceutical and Fette, as well as more than 90 providers of medical supplies for pandemic prevention at the newly launched MSE (Medical Supplies Expo) China.
Another key goal of the event was to enhance industry learning, and CPhI & P-MEC China hosted more than 80 professional conferences, Innovation Galleries and Tours, and even factory visits. Empowering new partnering, the 10th Buyers Sourcing Event attracted more than 100 buyers, delivering hundreds of meetings.
Finally, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of CPhI China, the organizing committee awarded a “CPhI China 20th Anniversary Founding Exhibitor Award” and “P-MEC China 15th Anniversary Founding Exhibitor Award” on the opening day at the CPhI China 20th anniversary reception.
For international online attendees, the event teamed up with PharmaSources.com to launch the Virtual Expo Connect (VEC), which ran for a full month in December and connected pharma in China with overseas customers.
The VEC provided access to eight features including the Digital Showroom, Online Matchmaking, Hosted Buyer Video Meeting, Exhibitors’ Talk, Conference Webcasts, Guided Tours, VR Show, and Onsite Digital Center. Emphasising the global interest in China, especially in a period of restricted international travel, 5,105 registered users took part. These included 529 buyers from Europe, America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, who attended a total of 575 trade meetings online.
“It was a tremendously successful event for pharma and an encouraging piece of news to start the year with, providing a window into what the post-pandemic exhibition environment can return to. 2021 promises to be a celebration of the pharma industry with vaccine distribution now underway and we look forward to helping the industry meet both online and in person so it can continue its work in discovering and delivering vital therapies to patients,” commented Laura Murina, Brand Manager, Informa.