POST EXHIBITION PRESS RELEASE

Pharmtech & Ingredients 2021 sparked interest among pharmaceutical industry professionals

The 23rd International exhibition of equipment, raw materials and technologies for pharmaceutical production, Pharmtech & Ingredients, took place on 23-26 November 2021, at Crocus Expo.

A long-time platform for building relationships in the pharmaceutical industry, Pharmtech & Ingredients once again provided an opportunity for face-to-face meetings and live communication, and was warmly received by the pharmaceutical community. Leading industry players demonstrated new products and flagship equipment, signed contracts, shared experiences, and summed up the results of the past year.

This year more than 300 companies took part in the Pharmtech & Ingredients exhibition, among them many foreign companies. The leading technology companies from 25 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, USA, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and others, participated in the exhibition. Germany and Switzerland continued the tradition of organizing national pavilions, which united leading manufacturers and suppliers of state-of-the-art equipment and technologies for pharmaceutical production. More than 50 exhibitors presented their offers to the market for the first time.

Pharmtech & Ingredients 2021 sparked interest among pharmaceutical industry professionals. More than 4,800 unique industry specialists from 60 regions of Russia (56 in 2020, 62 in 2019) and 33 countries, including representatives of all EAEU countries (Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan), visited the exhibition. Considering the repeated visits, more than 5,800 specialists in total.

The rate of essential visitors in 2021 exceeded the indicators of 2020 and 2019. The share of potential customers increased to 77% (74% in 2020, 72% in 2019), 41% of them searched for products and services for business (38% in 2020, 36% in 2019). The decision-makers amounted to 70% (67% in 2020, 63% in 2019). Visitors with a purchasing budget of 20 million and more than 50 million increased up to 40% (36% in 2019 and 2020).

The representatives of the largest drug manufacturers like SkopinPharm, Valenta Pharm, BIOCAD, GENERIUM, R-Pharm, PHARMASYNTEZ, Pharmstandard, Sintez, PETROVAX PHARM, NANOLEK, GEROPHARM, Veropharm, POLYSAN, AKRIKHIN, BIOTEC, Berlin Pharma, Bayer, STADA, and others visited the exhibition.

Novelties of the exhibition

For the first time on the Russian market, the Gluvex stand presented: the Sotax AT50 tablet hardness tester, laboratory balance of the new Entris II line by Sartoirus, and the SoloFlex flexible isolator by Solocontainment. The newest VariPol polarimeter and VariRef refractometer by the German company Schmidt+Haensch were also demonstrated.

Eurasian Academy of Good Practices demonstrated the main and promising areas of activity and projects, and the latest educational programmes and courses aimed at increasing the level of competence and knowledge in the field of pharmaceutical production. Their stand showcased the virtual pharmaceutical complex Virtual Plant 2.0, which realistically rendered passing the pharmaceutical inspection of the production of medicines in compliance with GMP requirements.

Rolstech introduced devices for applying labels and labeling on packaging with pharmaceutical products. Novelties presented at the stand were: an automatic vial labeling machine ROLS-300, an automatic labeling machine ROLS-300A for ampoules, cartridges, and small vials, and a printer-marking machine ROLS-210 for cardboard packs.

Among the latest solutions at the Sartorius stand, the CIMmultus monolithic columns were presented for the first time. Solohill microcarriers for cell culture became another acquisition of the company. The most important products of the company are bioreactors, which allow covering all stages of production from cell line screening with the Ambr 15 bioreactor to industrial production with a new generation fermenter Biostat STR Gen. 3.

The IBP company designs and manufactures mobile alcohol storage facilities with the EGAIS alcohol metering system. The facilities are temporal and equipped with everything necessary for storing, accounting, receiving and dispensing alcohol. The storages have configurable parameters, including explosion-proof engineering communications.

JSR Life Sciences offered direct material supply, assistance, and consultation of specialists in the selection of materials, a flexible system of transactions, and full logistic support. The Amsphere A3 resin, Magnosphere magnetic microparticles, and an innovative chromatography platform CHROMNEX were displayed.

The company DM TECHNOMARK offered a unique solution for the automation of aggregation and labeling. At Pharmtech & Ingredients, the DM-T S-Unit flow-type aggregation line was demonstrated, one of its features being the ability to automate the process of labeling with pre-printed Date Matrix codes.

This year, at the Mikhail Kurako stand, the equipment of the company’s European partners was presented: a small dry granulator Bohle BRC 25, an insulator by Metall+Plastic (a subsidiary of Optima Pharma), a tablet press XL 400 4 SFP by Korsch AG, a deduster KD6015 by Krämer, and a sterilizer by Belimed.

Tecsa showed laboratory jet mills that were optimally suited for grinding powders down to 1 micron. These mills are compact and can include elements of mechanical mills, which makes it possible to grind products with an initial particle size of more than 1 mm using one unit. The line includes laboratory, pilot, and industrial models.

The production company PHARMSYSTEMS presented Russian distillers and steam generators. The design and equipment of STILTEK series distillers and STIMTEK series steam generators meet GMP requirements. Both series include a wide range of models with steam or electric heating.

Business programme

On the first day of the exhibition, a plenary session “Availability of medicines for the national health care system: balance of interests of the participants” was held. During the discussion, representatives of Russian pharmaceutical companies, industry associations and government authorities expressed their views on the problems and prospects of the drug supply system. The speakers discussed the current situation on the Russian market and shared their views on how to increase the availability of medicines, considering the interests of all parties. Dmitry Galkin, Director of the Department of pharmaceutical and medical industry development of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, noted that since the beginning of the pandemic, the government bodies began to act more prudently, but at the same time decisively, making the necessary adjustments in the process. The session was moderated by Irina Novikova, CEO of GxP News, co-organizer of the event.

During the round table “API: to be produced or imported”, the heads of manufacturing companies of active pharmaceutical ingredients and the heads of specialized industry associations were seeking to answer the question, whether it was possible to completely abandon purchases abroad? Experts said that local production of active substances was an important strategic issue, but a lot of work should be done. The event was moderated by Georgy Khachiyan, General Director of Reatorg, partner of the round table.

The round table “Changing regulatory rules for pharmaceutical waste” raised important issues of the industry, including legislative regulations and legal nuances of handling different types of medical waste, features of ecologists’ work at pharmaceutical enterprises, the need for expertise of projects for the disposal of potentially harmful waste, the rules for filing in documents, and ways to comply with extended producer responsibility standards.

Natalya Belyaeva, the moderator of the round table, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Waste Processing and Secondary Resources of Business Russia, head of the Delphi Law Firm, noted: “The site is very active, which is very pleasing. For the first time I felt pleased, not hopeless from the discussion of the uncertainty that has been lingering for 10 years. When there is such feedback, the industry is alive, it follows the changes, which is relevant not only for the pharmaceutical sector, but also for the rest of the business community.”

On 24 November, one of the most pressing issues of the past two years became the central theme of the round table “Vaccine production in the context of the SARS-CoV-19 pandemic: challenges, scaling, new solutions”. The session was organized in partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific. Experts shared the experience of their companies and organizations in research and vaccine production. Participating in the discussion were representatives of The National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya, R-Pharm, PHARMASYNTEZ, GENERIUM, as well as the international company Thermo Fisher Scientific.

The 16th International Forum “Pharmtechprom” became a platform for the presentation of the latest technologies in pharmaceutical production. The following companies were represented by their speakers at the Forum: EUROAPI France, IMCD RUS, HOSOKAWA ALPINE AG, Asahi Kasei, Palladio BNM, AURORA, Bruker, TROX, and others.

During 2 days of seminars, exhibitors would speak about new technologies and give their recommendations on the selection of suitable products from the exhibited range.

Awards

For more than two decades, Pharmtech & Ingredients has been growing and developing together with key players of the Russian pharmaceutical industry, reflecting and celebrating the industry achievements. The awards for the exhibitors celebrated their work.

Five companies were awarded in 2021:

For high professionalism — Merck
For loyalty and constancy — Erecton
Effective product demonstration at the stand — Saula
The best Russian exposition — ACTICOMP
The best debut — DM TECHNOMARK

Official support

Pharmtech & Ingredients 2021 was supported by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, the Association of Russian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, the Union of Professional Pharmaceutical Organizations, and the Association of Medicines Manufacturers of the Republic of Armenia.

Partners: