CPhI Worldwide, organised by UBM EMEA, closes its 26th edition with pre-audit figures showing impressive attendee and exhibitor numbers of 36,368 and 2490 respectively. The world's largest pharma trade show was held in Madrid, 13–15 October 2015, and returns again to Spain in 2016 for the annual event's first visit to Barcelona.

In total, attendees came from an impressive 150+ countries, with the 2015 event expanding its conference platform and adding a plethora of further networking, learning and sharing opportunities.

UBM EMEA, Group Pharma Director, Chris Kilbee attributes CPhI Worldwide's impressive growth to the show's ability to adapt with the pharma sector. He commented:

"Each year we listen to the feedback of our exhibitors and add new networking opportunities and features so that our customers can make the most productive use of their time at what is an extremely busy and dynamic show. In the last few years we have gone a stage further and now offer content sharing and thought leadership platforms throughout the event. By continually evolving our offering we have added 300 new exhibitors and attendance has risen by over 8000 in just 3-years."

The Madrid event featured 20 exhibitor zones covering the entire supply chain and more than 10 country pavilions.

In addition, the Pharma Forum — a dedicated content zone — was launched for its inaugural year and a revamped Pharma Awards returned with four new categories and over 70 entries. The awards are now amongst the most prestigious and eagerly anticipated in the pharma calendar, with a hugely respected panel of industry judges.

In fact, the marketing of the show, combined with its unrivalled senior executive attendee profile, has seen over 95% of exhibitors rebook for 2016 less than two-months after the 2015 event has closed.

Rutger Oudejans, Brand Director Pharma at UBM EMEA, and a key figure behind its recent evolution, added:

"It’s a difficult job continuing to improve an already very successful platform. But we constantly strive to better ourselves and a couple of notable achievements include increasing the early rebooking rate and pre-registered attendees — with the later growing by an enormous 41% in just 3-years. But the CPhI Worldwide model is really a combination of gradual incremental improvement. The entire team is dedicated to refining the diversity available to our attendees; the quality of new business leads for customers; and most crucially, how we can utilise world-class content to ensure our visitors leave with new knowledge as well as contacts."

One successful returning content initiative, Pre-Connect Congress – which took place ahead of CPhI Worldwide on October 12th — played host to hundreds of delegates, 140 companies from 40 countries and over 40 speakers, with discussions covering current market challenges and future growth projections. Leading executives from industry heavyweights GSK, Teva, Sanofi, Catalent and Reuters led the one-day analysis based conference, including vital information on the latest products, innovations and new strategies for doing business in Pharma.

Finally, CPhI Worldwide 2016 will welcome a new co-located event in Finished Dosage Formulation (FDF). The transformation of FDF from a dedicated zone into a full co-located event reflects exhibitor demand as well as the wider market growth. It is designed to bring together Big Pharma and CMO, out-licensing specialists, end product distributors, end-user agents, and home markets.

Thanks to the success of Madrid show — and renewed buoyancy in the Spanish market — CPhI Worldwide will return to Spain for 2016 at the Fira de Barcelona Gran Via, Barcelona, 4–6 October.