Terrorist Attacks Have No Impact on EuroMeeting, Says DIA

The combined EuroMeeting and Clinical Forum, slated for mid-April, will take place in Paris as planned, in spite of January's terrorist attacks in the French capital, according to the Drug Information Association (DIA).

"We are working closely with the venue and the city of Paris to make sure all security measures are taken and on-site security will be reinforced," says Natacha Scholl, team leader of operations for DIA in Europe, Middle East & Africa. "We will put everything in place to reassure participants, of course."

Scholl does not anticipate that the attacks will have any great impact on delegate numbers. "Registrations haven't stopped over the past days, despite the tragic events," she says.

As of Jan. 15, there were already more than 650 registered participants, and Scholl said the organizers are expecting at least 2,500 to 3,000 attendees in total for the two events. The EuroMeeting and Clinical Forum have never before been held at the same location, but there were around 2,500 participants at the 2013 EuroMeeting in Amsterdam and around 2,200 at the 2014 EuroMeeting in Vienna. The Clinical Forum attracts an average of 400 attendees each year.

Globalization remains a key industry trend and one that will be discussed heavily at both events. The continued significance of global markets was listed as the 10th leading trend in pharmaceuticals, according to DIA's second annual "What Lies Ahead?" report.

"It is important for companies to work in global markets, especially in developing markets like China, pan-Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe, India, and Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, and other Latin American countries, as this is where the majority of future growth will be," wrote the authors.

Successful companies, they said, conduct early stage analysis and planning to account for varying global factors when selecting countries for expansion, and they also create partnerships to address these needs and to build infrastructure, including training of the workforce.

According to the DIA report, "The topic of global markets is, as one thought leader expressed, 'almost an established fact of life and no longer a trend.'"