Reed into drugs

Just arrived in Bangkok (now the Sukhothai is a really nice hotel) to discover that, while in the air, Paul Conley has shown once again his close interest in international devlopments, particularly Asia. He points to a Reed Business announcement of a new magazine, Pharma Asia. This will be a nice complement to the big trade fairs deal that RBI's sister company, Reed Exhibitions, did in China a couple of months back when it acquired the big, State-owned medical fairs company, Sinopharm. Reed has not always been the best at wringing synergies out of its publishing and trade fair portfolios but the strong interest in healthcare is clear for all to see.

They're not the only ones. CMP big deal to acquire MediMedia last year (now CMP Medica) was worth around $345 million. One-third of the value of that was in Asia.