Rich Whitworth is the Editor in Chief of 

Rich Whitworth

Summer can often feel like a quiet month for the pharma industry in Europe. With holidays taken by so many staff, business can be quiet and out-of-office notifications abound. But in autumn, the beast awakens from its slumber. 

And it does so with a number of important events, of which CPhI is one of the biggest. Come October 25, almost 30000 people from over 140 countries will come together to network, discuss the latest industry trends and hopefully forge new partnerships. 

In current economic times, such shows can seem a financial burden, but the opportunity to meet people face-to-face, for me, is becoming less frequent, and to have such large numbers from the industry all under one roof is a compelling enough reason to attend. But we are also at a time of great change, with a large number of increasingly hot topics: rise of generics, emerging markets, biosimilars and biobetters, supply chain security... the list goes on. Being able to talk with others in the industry not only gives us insight into where we are now, but also, more importantly, where we might be heading. 

This year, the majority of the PTE team will be attending the show in Frankfurt at booth: 51F53. You are more than welcome to visit us to let us know what's happening in your corner of the market, or to tell us about something exciting you've seen. We will be active online, providing daily show blogs and feeding important news through our twitter account. If you're not already a follower, and especially if you're not able to attend the show but want to be kept up-to-date, then head to 

 to join us. All of our activities will also be highlighted on a special CPhI page at 

As always, you're free to contact me directly, by email, but hopefully we may have a chance to meet in person soon. 

Articles

Summer can often feel like a quiet month for the pharma industry in Europe.

I Spy CPhI

There have been several new stories and reports lately that paint a rather gloomy picture of the state of pharma R&D. From reports on high clinical trial failure rates (see "News") to the CEO of Eli Lilly needing to defend his position on maintaining R&D expenditure to investors, there is a message emerging, and pharma companies, or rather their investors, are beginning to question the future of R&D, and its current inability to stave off losses from patent expiries and generic competition. (I listened with interest to a news story on the radio this morning about common painkillers, such as aspirin and paracetamol, being more efficacious for dementia than antipsychotics — talk about generic competition.) 

There was one beacon of light that left me feeling inspired this month, though, unfortunately, it too stems from something of an R&D failure... The Global Genes Fund aims to raise financial support for research into rare diseases, as well as increase awareness. It has a wonderful and simple message: "Every child, everywhere, regardless of disease, deserves treatments, therapies and support." It is common knowledge that the traditional pharma model does not serve orphan diseases well; pharma companies are, of course, more interested in the provision of drugs for the majority to justify R&D costs. But awareness of orphan diseases is steadily increasing, thanks to this project and other campaigns such as Rare Disease Day (

The fund is part of the larger US-based Global Genes Project (

), and the aim is that, in the near future, potential donors will be able to peruse research projects and make individual donations online. The idea of connecting the public directly to research activities in this way is interesting and could add incentive to tackling rare diseases. It will no doubt also leverage the vast potential of social networking and "crowdsourcing". I look forward to seeing how it could change the future landscape of R&D. 

There have been several new stories and reports lately that paint a rather gloomy picture of the state of pharma R&D.

Gene-ius

One of the perks of my job is that I can travel to previously unvisited cities. This month, I was lucky enough to be in Switzerland (the focus of Industry Insider for our July issue "Swiss Pharma Strength"). Being surrounded by international delegates, as usual, made me feel particularly sensitive about my multilingual capabilities or rather, lack thereof. I often take it for granted that many of the world's workshops, conferences and summits are in English, my native tongue. What I do not take for granted though, is the outstanding English ability of most of the speakers and delegates. To learn English is one thing, but to deliver presentations, pose questions, discuss and debate is quite another. Switzerland itself had me in somewhat of a spin; travelling from Basel to Montreux, the language switched from German to French without pause. Nevertheless, at the meetings it was all English—a testament to how keen international scientists are to communicate with each other and discuss challenges and issues.  

At the Next Generation Pharmaceutical (NGP) Manufacturing Summit in Montreux, a hot topic of discussion was counterfeiting, especially in light of the EU's Falsified Medicines Directive. In a keynote workshop, 

Protecting Brand Integrity: Innovations in Traceability & Anti-Counterfeiting

, a concern shared by all was the lack of detail in the new legislation, but there were also many other questions to answer. One was whether current technology is good enough, and the general view was that it more than met the industry's needs. Perhaps the problem is that sophistication is only useful if it can be fully controlled. Although track and trace technology is fairly simple and gaining momentum, one of the panellists noted that it is a single tool and not the sole solution. Serialisation is clearly important though, with the Turkish Ministry of Health leading the charge. Trackinside's Adrian Simmons called for the pharma industry to look at lessons learned in other markets, stating that the excuse "we are different because we are pharma" does not apply to this issue; the automotive, food and beverage, and entertainment industries all have valuable experience.  

The big question, however, was "who should be driving anti-counterfeiting?" In a quick show of hands, the split was about 75% pharma, 20% regulatory and 5% vendor. Perhaps lobbying by advocacy groups, as in other industries, would help get everyone on the same page; regulatory requirements certainly push pharma, so maybe pharma should push back. One thing that is certain though is that the counterfeiters will be hot on the heels of any decision. 

One of the perks of my job is that I can travel to previously unvisited cities. This month, I was lucky enough to be in Switzerland.