FRANKFURT, Germany -- The Convention on Pharmaceutical Ingredients (CPhI) Worldwide connected thousands within its community from Tuesday to Thursday in Frankfurt, Germany. Included on this global stage were 62 South Korean pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, tripling the country’s presence from the event last year.

Based on the number of exhibitors by country, Korea ranked ninth of the 72 countries. Korea was also the only country that had two pavilions for exhibiting each nation’s companies in clusters.

This year’s international convention gathered approximately 2,500 companies from 170 countries with over 40,000 attendees.

Korean household names such as Celltrion, Daewoong Pharmaceuticals, Hanmi Pharmaceutical and Samsung Biologics set up sizable booths to promote their pipelines as well as installed business meeting rooms to discuss partnerships with potential clients.

“With the ongoing dispute between the US and China, both of China’s pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries have taken a hit. As a result, more companies are turning to secure alternatives to Chinese firms to reduce the risk of unstable supply chains,” an official at a Korean pharmaceutical company told The Korea Herald on Wednesday.

“Our team has conducted over 30 business meetings since the first day of the event and we still have a couple of dozen left until tomorrow. Other (Korean firms) also looked like they were busy engaging with future partners,” the official added.

According to the CPhI Annual Survey that asked 400 pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry executives about each country’s key indicators, such as growth potential and knowledge of professionals, Korea ranked eighth in global competitiveness standings.

However, another area of growth for Korea pertains to the overall score in the CPhI Annual Survey, which decreased by 3 percent from the previous year. Korea, along with Spain, received a minus grade for their average assessment last year.

By Kan Hyeong-woo (hwkan@heraldcorp.com), Korea Herald correspondent