RICAI : Réunion interdisciplinaire de chimiothérapie anti-infectieuse · 2026

Agoris analysis · updated November 2026

Key takeaways

• RICAI, the Réunion interdisciplinaire de chimiothérapie anti-infectieuse (interdisciplinary anti-infective chemotherapy meeting), is a scientific congress on infectious diseases combined with an industry exhibition. Clinicians, microbiologists, epidemiologists, infection control specialists, pharmacologists, pharmacists and industry partners spend two days together.
• Next edition: the 46th, Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 December 2026, at the Palais des Congrès de Paris, level 3. A pre-registration desk lets attendees collect their badge from Sunday 13 December, 3pm to 8pm, but the congress itself starts on the Monday.
• Official website: ricai.fr. Organiser: the Association de Chimiothérapie Anti-Infectieuse (ACAI). Europa Organisation handles registration, partnerships and the scientific secretariat. Annual frequency, always in mid-December across the 2018 to 2026 editions.
• For exhibitors: 36 partners are listed for 2026, in three tiers. The programme sets aside time to visit the exhibition during the breaks and lunches of both days.
• Neither attendance nor the number of stands is published, and no exhibition space rates are online. The exhibitor badge, however, is listed at €100.

Who exhibits

Typical profile

RICAI addresses the industry that sells to infectious disease departments and microbiology laboratories. The 2026 list mixes pharmaceutical and vaccine companies, makers of diagnostic tests and analysers, and publishers of laboratory software. It is a congress format: the stand supports a scientific presence and catches participants between sessions, in the exhibition area.

Notable exhibitors

The Partners page thanks the 2026 partners in three tiers. It does not say which of them hold a stand, and no floor plan or exhibitor directory is online.

• Platinum: Pfizer.
• Silver: bioMérieux, Gilead Sciences.
• Partners: Abbott Rapid Diagnostics, Altona Diagnostics France, Ascentry, Axonlab, Beckman Coulter, Cepheid Europe, Clarisys Informatique, Copan, CSL Seqirus, DiaSorin, ELITechGroup, Eumedica, Eurobio Scientific, i2a, Infectopharm, Laboratoires Nephrotek-AAZ, Launch Diagnostics France, Mast Diagnostic, Mundipharma, QIAGEN, Randox Laboratories, R-Biopharm, Resah, Roche Diagnostics France, Sansure, Seegene, Shionogi, Softway Medical Biologie, SpeeDx, Sysmex France, Valab, Viatris, Waters.

Quality of the audience

The target audience is professional, and registration requires proof according to status: doctors, pharmacists, veterinarians, biologists, microbiologists, researchers, nurses and students, in the fields of human health, infectious diseases and medical biology. The RPPS or ADELI number is requested where applicable.

Cross-disciplinarity is the central argument. The organising committee points out that the learned societies, including SPILF, SFM and SF2H, each hold their own congress but are all stakeholders in RICAI. For an industry player, that means reaching the prescribing clinician and the biologist on the same floor.

No overall attendance figure is published. The only headcount shown covers people registered under a training agreement: 132 people trained in 2025 and 121 in 2024, with a recommendation rate of 88.84% in 2025 and 85.44% in 2024. These figures describe only part of the audience and do not measure congress attendance.

Events & community

Conference programme

The 2026 interactive programme, updated in real time, currently lists 85 slots spread across two auditoriums, eight rooms and the exhibition area: 4 plenary sessions, 34 invited sessions, 20 oral communication sessions and 11 flash and poster sessions. The submission themes cover bacteriology, virology, parasitology and mycology, hygiene and infection risk management, clinical practice and therapeutics, pharmacokinetics, and pathophysiology and animal models.

The organising committee announces Professor Didier Fassin, a physician, sociologist and anthropologist, for the introductory lecture, on the links between infectious disease medicine and the social sciences. The "Médecine et Sciences Sociales" (medicine and social sciences) plenary opens on Monday at 8:45am, in parallel with "Bactéries hypervirulentes : point et perspectives" (hypervirulent bacteria: update and outlook).

Three formats are of direct interest to industry: the symposiums from 1pm to 2pm (one on Monday and two on Tuesday in the current programme; the programme shows Pfizer as sponsor in the Bordeaux auditorium on both days, and Gilead in the Havane auditorium on Tuesday), the Agora set up inside the exhibition area, and its "Coffee & Science" sequences, four short talks during the breaks, all listed in the programme with Cepheid as sponsor, three of which concern PCR tests.

Awards and accolades

The 2026 RICAI Prizes provide for up to six prizes of €1,500 each, in bacteriology, clinical practice and therapeutics, parasitology and mycology, pathophysiology and animal models, and virology, including a Junior prize. They are presented on Tuesday 15 December at 1:30pm on the Agora. The day before, at the same time and in the same place, the RICAI mobility grants are presented: ACAI is offering three in 2026, of €35,000 each.

Community & networks

The congress relies on ACAI, whose board is chaired in 2026 by Professor Manuel Etienne. A thematic portal, accessible with a free account, extends the event with congress content since 2019: videos, presentations and posters.

On the media side, the 2026 media partners listed are Biologiste 365, Edimark, La Gazette du Laboratoire and Spectra Diagnostic.

On site: what you need to know

The congress takes place on level 3 of the Palais des Congrès de Paris, 2 place de la Porte Maillot, in the 17th arrondissement. The interactive programme places sessions from 8:45am to 6pm on Monday and from 8:45am to 5:30pm on Tuesday. The registration desk opens at 7:30am on Monday and 7:45am on Tuesday.

Getting there: metro line 1, Porte Maillot station; RER C, Neuilly-Porte Maillot station, exit 3; buses 43, 73, 82, 244 and PC; Indigo Porte Maillot car park. The organisers recommend public transport because of the works at Porte Maillot.

The site offers individual online hotel booking with H24 Travel. For more than five rooms, Europa Booking & Services is the official provider. The congress mobile app was not yet available when the site was read.

How much it costs to exhibit

The partnership contact is Jessica Issé, at Europa Organisation, whose details appear on the Partners page. That page announces a partnership pack "available in March", without offering it for download: it therefore has to be requested directly.

Preparing your visit

For the exhibitor

• Plan the key moments around the programme windows: breaks from 10:15am to 10:45am on both mornings, breaks from 3:45pm to 4:30pm on Monday and from 3:45pm to 4pm on Tuesday, lunches from 12:30pm to 2pm.
• Allow for the symposiums from 1pm to 2pm, scheduled during the lunch slot in the exhibition area.
• Plan lunch baskets for your teams ahead: orders close on Monday 30 November 2026, with no orders taken on site.
• Plan paperless documentation: exhibitors are asked to replace printed documents, for example with a QR code.

For the decision-making visitor

• The rate depends on the date: for a healthcare professional, €440 until 12 December 2026, then €495 on site from 13 December. The SPILF or SFM member rate goes from €340 to €365.
• Registration includes the badge, the sessions, the exhibition, the app and the coffee breaks. Lunch is not included: lunch basket at €24.20 incl. VAT.
• Funding under a training agreement is possible, provided the signed agreement reaches the organisers at least 15 days before the start of the congress.
• Individual registration: cancellation is possible for 14 days after the order, with no refund from 3 December 2026; free name change until 4 December, for the same type of participation.
• Collecting your badge at the pre-registration desk on Sunday 13 December, from 3pm to 8pm, avoids the Monday morning queue.

Policy & CSR initiatives

RICAI publishes a dedicated page on its initiatives. It lists a selection of caterers offering local, seasonal menus, tight management of quantities and redistribution of unconsumed food where possible, the end of plastic bottles and eco-cups in favour of water fountains, a preference for digital signage, reusable furniture and 100% recyclable carpet. No quantified carbon footprint or certification specific to the congress appears there.

The venue provides verifiable guarantees: Viparis states that the Palais des Congrès de Paris holds a renewed ISO 20121 certification, a Breeam in-use certification at excellent level and an average waste recovery rate of 56%.

How the trade show has evolved

Trajectory analysis

RICAI stands out for its regularity: every edition checked from 2018 to 2026 falls on a Monday and Tuesday in mid-December, over two days. For an annual exhibition budget, that is a predictable year-end date, which the organising committee itself describes as a wintry scientific interlude.

Without a published attendance report, no trend in attendance or number of stands can be established. The only comparable figures concern people registered under a training agreement, up slightly between 2024 and 2025, and are not enough to draw conclusions for the congress as a whole.

The dates of the 2027 edition had not been announced at the time of writing.

All data that does not name its source comes from the organiser's website.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (ricai.fr).