The Pharma ChemOutsourcing Conference has with no doubtbecome The Meeting Point in the USA, and not only, of the Gothaof major players in the fi eld of pharma and biotechnology. In fact, Pharma ChemOutsourcing is the only event during the year in which large numbers of sourcing managers from pharmaceutical and biotech companies gather to interact among themselves.The numbers of this years’ show,which celebrated its fi fth edition, were impressing: during four days more thanseven-hundred participants belongingto more than four-hundred companiesor subsidiaries from worldwide, morethan one-hundred exhibitors and, last but not least, one-hundred qualifi ed speakers met in a picturesque beachfront resort, Long Branch, in New Jersey. Despite the attempt of hurricane Irene to messup the location less than a couple of weeks before, the event was once again successful.During the four days something like thirty-fi ve among plenary sessions, presentations, conferences, panel discussions and workshops wereheld covering at the highest level the hottest topics of the moment for the sector of outsourcing: new opportunities for sourcing and outsourcing, forecasts, R&D strategies, risks in the pharma supplychain, communication issues between players, facts and issuesabout imports from third countries, early and late stage development of drugs and APIs, HPAIs, technological advances and applications, new technologies, analytical methods, issues of genotoxic andcarcinogenic impurities in APIs, etc.