Early in June, Istanbul was the venue of one of the busiest EuroPLX Meetings ever. A last minute change to a more spacious conference room in the Istanbul Hilton Convention Center made sure that the 176 delegates of 123 companies from 31 countries had ample space to exchange their business opportunities.

Delegates came from almost all European countries, Korea, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Chile, Argentina, the U.S.A. and Canada. Ukraine was represented for the first time at a EuroPLX Meeting; the medium-sized, privately owned company Vita Sana had four delegates at EuroPLX 36 to find partners who would be interested in Vita Sana\'s expertise in marketing branded drugs in the Ukraine.

Other first-timers to EuroPLX were Bayer Schering Pharma, Drogsan Pharmaceuticals, Kale Kimya Grubu, Keymen Pharmaceuticals of Turkey, Akrikhin Pharmaceutical of Russia, Alapis Pharma of Greece, Deef Pharmaceutical Industries of Saudi Arabia, Develco Pharma of Switzerland, Fannin of Ireland, ICE Pharma, Meldex International, and Merck Serono of the UK, Helvetia Pharma of the Czech Republic, Hennig Arzneimittel of Germany, Kolon and Kyung-Dong of Korea, Laboratorios Saval of Chile, Moberg Derma of Sweden, Neogen of Belgium, Substipharm Développement of France, Toll Manufacturing of Spain, and Xcelris of India.

It is not surprising that a delegate from Canada stated: "There is no better method of meeting with interested parties from Europe, the Middle East and Asia under one roof." And the fact that about 80% of the participants were returning attendees of previous EuroPLX Meetings is not surprising either. One of them, the delegate of Barcelona based Aldo-Unión Laboratorio, S.A. was honoured for his 20th participation in EuroPLX. He is not alone; two others were honoured before him for having attended 20 times, and 33 other business development executives have attended more than 10 times already. For them, EuroPLX has become an integral part of their business activities.

During the two days session in Istanbul, the 123 participating companies had an average of 23.8 pre-scheduled business negotiations per company, in addition to those arranged on site. But talking about opportunities is one thing, making a deal another.

High Decision Power at EuroPLX

Doing deals requires decision power. And decision power is well represented at EuroPLX: In Istanbul almost 60% of the delegates had decision power:

• Presidents, VPs: 11 (6.3%)
• CEOs, Managing Directors: 20 (11.4%)
• Partners, Managing Partners: 13 (7.4%)
• Directors, Heads: 50 (28.4%)

Moreover, 23 owners or co-owners were present (13.1%), and 9 (5.1%) members of owner families. The presence of owners and members of owner families has become a distinguishing feature of EuroPLX over the past few years. In fact, although major pharma groups such as Sanofi-Aventis or Novartis attend regularly, EuroPLX is the preferred business platform for medium-sized companies, many of them family owned.

Targeted Sponsoring Saves Time And Money

Medium-sized companies cannot deploy much personnel for business development. For them, it is all the more important that their business developers save time by using tools which have the potential to multiply their efforts. The recently introduced "Targeted Sponsoring" concept of EuroPLX exploits the fact that EuroPLX Meetings are exclusively attended by executives in charge of business development. This presents a unique opportunity for companies who aim to promote their BD objectives among a sizeable but specialised audience.

In Istanbul, two companies made use of the Targeted Sponsoring concept. Abdi Ibrahim Pharmaceuticals, the Platinum Sponsor, had an exhibition stand at the conference (among other promotional benefits), and Bilim Pharmaceuticals sponsored a memorable Bosphorus cruise and a gala dinner at the Sait Halim Pasha Mansion, a historical site on the European bank of the Bosphorus.

Next Venues: Dresden And Barcelona

The next two EuroPLX Meetings are open for registration now: EuroPLX 37 Dresden (Germany), which will be held on October 6th and 7th, 2008 in The Westin Bellevue, and EuroPLX 38 Barcelona (Spain) which will take place on November 24th and 25th, 2008 in the Hilton Diagonal Mar.

Information on these meetings and registration on www.europlx.com.

See below, partners exchanging their business opportunities in the Istanbul Hilton Convention Center

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