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A Frankfurt adventure: What makes the city a great place for pharma?

As we fast approach CPhI Worldwide’s return to Frankfurt, we take a look at what makes the city such a great place for pharma.

This coming October I will not only venture to Frankfurt for the first time but this will also be my very first CPhI Worldwide! Although I have been to many places in Germany, I am quite looking forward to seeing the delights Frankfurt has to offer and am excited to see the vast Messe in all its glory, full to the brim with pharma movers and shakers.

Despite this being my first time, however, it has been a welcome location for the immense pharma event many times in the past. Following on from the success of last year’s event in Barcelona there is much anticipation about the continued growth in visitors, particularly in light of the fact that the industry is currently flourishing.

However, out of all the worldwide locations, what makes Frankfurt such a great place for pharma? Well, as the financial capital of Europe,1 there are obvious economic reasons that make the city attractive. As PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed in their 2017 Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Industry Trends report,2 companies within the pharmaceutical and life sciences sectors are experiencing the challenges of a ‘New Health Economy’ — consolidation among providers, varying patient demands and expectations, pricing reform as a result of rising cost pressures from payors and more focus on rule-based, protocol-driven care.2

Within this new era, pharma companies will need to be more consumer-facing, so not only prioritising product sales but also delivering positive results for targeted populations.

One way in which pharma companies are already shifting to this new economic way of thinking, according to the report, is to “adopt new technologies for data analytics that can manage and assess the results of personalised medicine delivery and determine the direction of product development.”

Another factor companies will be considering is the distribution of products, as a result of the diversification of product types and variances in lifecycles that comes with a more personalised treatments and a rise in biopharma. It is in this area of logistics that we find another lucrative benefit Frankfurt can offer pharma.

The city has easy road, rail and river access that have long served as beneficial distribution routes in Europe but more recently air transportation hit the headlines for Frankfurt. In April last year, it was announced that plans surrounding the city’s airport, which is the largest in Germany and the busiest in Europe,3 to become the major pharma-hub for the continent had been reinforced.4 The aim was for a number of companies to achieve IATA Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics (CEIV-Pharma) certification with the support of the Air Cargo Community Frankfurt.

“With comprehensive certification of the entire process chain we will have independent confirmation and can recommend Frankfurt as the Pharma-Gateway for Europe,” explained Joachim von Winning, executive director of Air Cargo Community Frankfurt.4 “At the same time we also see the certification process as an opportunity to optimise services and processes. In doing so, we want to respond even better to the needs and requirements of freight forwarders and pharmaceutical companies. IATA CEIV Pharma provides the perfect setting…”

Nowadays, Frankfurt Airport is Europe’s leading pharma hub, followed by Paris and Amsterdam, offering solutions for perishables and pharmaceutical products, which must be of great benefit to the 90+ pharma and biotech companies housed in the city and others just located beyond.

So, it is plain to see why the city is considered to be ‘pharma’tastic and will make a wonderful host for the forthcoming CPhI Worldwide. I can’t wait to take in the sights and sounds of the busy Messe and hope to see you there too, but for now…

Auf Wiedersehen und danke schön,

Felicity

References:

  1. https://www.frankfurt.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=stadtfrankfurt_eval0c.317693.en
  2. https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/media/file/2017-Pharmaceuticals-and-Life-Sciences-Industry-Trends.pdf
  3. https://www.britannica.com/place/Frankfurt-am-Main
  4. https://www.internationalairportreview.com/news/22943/frankfurt-largest-pharma-hub-in-europe/
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