SAN FRANCISCO, January 29 /PRNewswire/ -- - Most Comprehensive Program Offering In Show's History Draws Participants From A Broad Range of Industries Despite Uncertain Economic Climate

The 2009 edition of InformexUSA officially opened its exhibition floors Wednesday with attendance expected to be 'on a par' with show traffic in 2008. The week long exhibition conference, which is the largest event for innovative chemistry in North America, is featuring an expanded program to address the business and information needs of a broader cross-section of markets involved with chemistry. New initiatives at InformexUSA 2009 include a Global Sourcing Summit, a Biotech Day program and a new exhibition and seminar event called the Green Exchange. Once again, the Informex program features Exhibitor and Technology Showcases focusing on exhibiting companies, as well as Networking Roundtables on manufacturing issues.

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According to Event Director, Jennifer Jessup, the need for networking in building relationships and accessing talent is stronger than ever during uncertain economic times. Informex is unique in North America as a networking event for the chemical industry. For years, Informex has been the premier meeting place for companies looking to develop outsourcing relationships for pharmaceutical production. With our 2009 event, we have broadened the industry segments that can look to Informex to develop their 'talent' networks, she said. At this year's Informex, we have set the stage for business to be conducted and we are looking forward to hearing about the new opportunities and new relationships that come about as part of the Show, she added.

Global sourcing and biopharma trends

Two new events that took place in the first two days of Informex week included a Global Sourcing Summit and a Biotech Breakfast. The Global Sourcing Summit was a day long program held on Monday, 26 January, that brought together a broad range of subject experts to delve into the myriad issues companies must address when they look to source their manufacturing outside the US and Europe. Topics covered in the Summit included trends in outsourcing, intellectual property issues, risk and governance control, supplier profiling and selection and more. The Summit ended with a series of country specific roundtable discussions lead by individuals highly acquainted with the market practices of Estonia, Latvia, Hungary and Mexico.

The first ever Informex Biotech Breakfast was held on Tuesday, 27 January and featured four presentations on trends, opportunities and strategies for companies looking to build outsourcing relationships with the biopharmaceutical industry. A key theme running across the presentations was the position of contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) as an integral part of a biotech sector that is maturing and becoming increasingly focused on cost efficiencies.

For Eric Langer, President of BioPlan Associates, the near-term future of the biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing market holds promise despite the economic climate. We've all seen the reports that say that 30% of the biopharma industry has only 6 months of cash, that IPOs are down 97% and that venture financing is down 30%, said Langer. Beneath the surface, a close look at what is actually happening in the market reveals significant opportunities for growth in equipment, raw materials and services, Langer's Sixth Annual Report Survey on Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing, to be published shortly, set the growth in total sales in these categories at 13.3% in 2008.

Selected opportunities also were revealed in a presentation by Bill Downey of High Tech Business Decisions on supply trends, strategies and pricing. According to Downey, growth in the industry continues and prices have been increasing significantly for CMO services, even as improved yields lower the cost per gram to outsourcing customers. The need for greater cost efficiency in the biopharma industry and its suppliers was underscored in a presentation by Chris Driscoll of Tunnell Consulting. Driscoll compared the biopharma industry to the semiconductor industry that moved from a primary focus on technical issues to one that made cost efficiencies an integrated part of organizational culture and a priority of management.

In addition to this type of sourcing-related programming, InformexUSA 2009 held events for the manufacturing and regulatory functions within the chemical industry. On the regulations front, SOCMA organized a REACH breakfast seminar that focused on the effect that these regulations will have on US companies doing business in Europe. In addition, a series of Networking Roundtables was held on topics such as scale-up, process RD and process improvement.

According to Jessup, it is the goal of the Informex management team to develop programming that will be helpful to an increasingly broad spectrum of business functions in the chemical industry serving an ever widening range of end-use markets - while at the same time maintaining the high quality networking that is the heritage of the event. Building networks and sharing ideas and business potential is fundamental to the Informex experience. It is our goal in 2009 and moving into the future to create more opportunities for the chemical industry and to attract an ever broader cross-section of the industry to our event. There is no replacement for face-to-face contact in creating new business opportunities. At Informex, we want to create that experience for as many people as we can, she said.

Note to Editor:

InformexUSA is the leading meeting place for buyers and sellers of high-value chemistry for a broad range of applications. As the leading tradeshow in the United States, InformexUSA has been a marketplace for networking and doing business in the fine, custom and specialty chemical manufacturing industry for more than 25 years. Visitors to the show come from a broad range of manufacturing industries including adhesives, electronics, agrochemicals, biopharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, plastics, paints, and more. Each year the event brings together an international mix of more than 4,000 fine and specialty chemicals professionals and 500 exhibitors. For more information, visit www.informex.com

Informex Holdings LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CMP Information Limited. CMP Information Limited is the B2B communications division of United Business Media Limited operating internationally, providing creative professional media solutions to around 20 industry sectors. Its products, including magazines, exhibitions, conferences, awards, information products and websites, are targeted at business professionals across a range of markets; these include Construction Architecture, Commercial Property, Licensed Trade, Travel, Agriculture and Ingredients. CMPi has approximately 1,000 employees in the UK, US, Asia, Europe, India and South America and in 2005, generated 177m pounds Sterling in revenues. For more information on CMP Information limited, visit www.cmpi.biz.

Michael Ramalho, UBM International Media, +1-609-759-4736, Fax: +1-201-720-2972, Mobile: +1-609-865-0760, mramalho@informex.com; Thomas Nicolay, Resource Advantage Group, Inc., +1-973-882-1313, tnicolay@resourceadvantage.com