A key event for Switzerland's pharmaceutical and chemical market

ILMAC has been Switzerland's sole trade fair for process and laboratory technology since 1959. Every three years, more than 12,000 specialists from the pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology, cosmetics, food and drinks industries meet up at Messe Basel. In addition to fostering their business relations they come to find out about the latest approaches and solutions in the field of industrial applications for process and laboratory technology. Under the motto ILMAC 4.0, current industry topics such as boosting efficiency, reducing costs and the latest trends will be discussed in the ILMAC Forum. The next ILMAC is being held from 20 to 23 September 2016 in Basel as part of the Basel Life Science Week.

Switzerland is world champion in innovation

World sales of the top ten Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical companies totalled 144 thousand million Swiss francs in 2014. And, in this same year, the pharmaceutical companies alone spent more than six thousand million Swiss francs on research and development in Switzerland. This accounts for around 33% of their global R&D expenditure. The companies' high financial investment in Switzerland as a research location testifies both to the importance of the location and the innovative spirit that drives them. The European and global innovation index shows that Switzerland is not only European champion when it comes to innovation but world champion too. In addition to their R&D expenditure, Switzerland's pharmaceutical companies have also invested more than four thousand million Swiss francs in plant and systems, such as technical appliances, machinery, fittings for buildings and manufacturing equipment1. As Roche recently announced, it will be investing 300 million Swiss francs in a production plant in Kaiseraugst, Switzerland, for the production of a new generation of specialist drugs.

Basel as a key life science region in Europe

Almost two thirds of those employed in the Swiss pharmaceutical industry work in the life science cluster in the Basel region. The major part of the added value generated in Switzerland thus originates in Basel and its surroundings. Approximately a third of all Swiss exports and a fifth of all Swiss imports are attributable to pharmaceutical products.

ILMAC trade fair in close proximity to the market

Since it was founded in 1959, ILMAC has developed into Switzerland's leading supplier fair for the pharmaceutical, chemical, food, drinks, cosmetics and biotechnology industries and covers all the industrial applications for process and laboratory technology. These sectors are moving ever closer together on the market, since the processes are increasingly no longer being planned and implemented individually within the companies but on a holistic basis instead. This development will be reflected at the 20th ILMAC with its state-of-the-art positioning concept. Michael Bonenberger, Exhibition Director for ILMAC, explains: "The exhibitors will be positioned in a mixed layout, thus permitting specially tailored synergies between the different sectors. In this way, the professional visitors can experience all the different areas of the trade fair as a single entity." Despite this wide variety, ILMAC will still be clearly laid out and will cover the full range of products and services in close proximity to the market. The concept is meeting with approval in the industry. Compared with ILMAC 2013, by the end of November, 50% of the exhibitors had already decided to take part again.

Concentrated life science power in 2016

The international Life Science Congress and also MipTec, the International Life Science Exhibition, are being held in the Congress Center Basel while ILMAC is running. MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel) Ltd. has cooperated with Congrex Switzerland in the past already. They will now be working together even more closely, exploiting synergies and spanning the full range of activities from the scientific events right through to the practically-oriented ILMAC. In the week from 19 to 23 September 2016, all the events are being staged in the joint framework of the "Basel Life Science Week".

Strong partner

With Endress+Hauser as the Main Partner Process, one of the world's leading suppliers of measuring devices, services and solutions for industrial process engineering and automation, is supporting ILMAC. Endress+Hauser has subsidiaries on all six continents and employs more than 12,000 employees in production, marketing and service worldwide.

1Source: Pharma-Markt Schweiz, Issue 2015, Published by Interpharma, Verband der forschenden pharmazeutischen Firmen der Schweiz.