The IPAC-RS conference will be held at the Hilton Washington DC/Rockville
At the next IPAC-RS conference, March 29-31 in Rockville, MD, sponsored by the International Pharmaceutical Aerosol Consortium on Regulation & Science (IPAC-RS), OINDP specialists will have uncommon opportunities to interact with regulators, representatives of patient organizations, and clinicians. The meeting, titled “Bringing Value to the Patient in a Changing World,” also includes scientific papers, posters, and workshops that will provide updates on new technologies for improving patient adherence and quality. The conference is open to the public.
Both days of the conference feature talks from FDA representatives, including a keynote address on Day 2 by Prasad Peri titled, “FDA View On Assessing Quality Of Inhaled Products And Links To Efficacy And Safety.” According to Sue Holmes, Director, CMC Regulatory Affairs at GlaxoSmithKline, who is the conference co-chair, Peri’s talk is intended to provide an update on the FDA’s efforts to revise the draft guidance.
Panel discussions and optional workshops will allow attendees to enter into discussions with regulators from the FDA, Health Canada, and the National Institute of Public Health
and the Environment (RIVM) of the Netherlands, as well as officials from the Mothers of Asthmatics network and the Alpha-1 foundation. In addition to a patient-focused workshop on improving adherence, the conference also offers workshops on leachables and extractables and the abbreviated impactor method (AIM)/efficient data analysis (EDA) techniques.
The organizers decided on the patient-centered topic in response to positive feedback to patient representative talks at the IPAC-RS conference held in 2008. According to Holmes, “Everyone seemed to really enjoy those sessions, and it was great to hear from the health care providers and the focus groups about what we are doing right and what they would like to see different.”
The first day sessions, titled “Voice of the Customers” and “Patient Interface” directly address patient needs, while the second day, with both sessions devoted to “Product Quality,” will be “more focused on industry and what we’re trying to do to resolve a lot of those issues or to progress the science behind those products.”
The three optional workshops will run concurrently on third day of the conference. IPAC-RS is offering a workshop-only registration for those who want to attend the third day only; however, some of the overview presentations scheduled on the second day are designed to lead into the workshops, so Holmes recommends attending all three days for the maximum benefit.
Attendees will also have opportunities to interact with each other and with speakers at poster sessions held during breaks and lunches, and at a cocktail reception that will take place at the end of the first day of the meeting. Holmes points out that the IPAC-RS conference, which drew nearly 200 attendees when it was last held in 2008, can be more conducive to networking than some of the larger meetings.
The majority of the attendees at previous IPAC-RS conferences have been from the United States; however, Holmes estimates that approximately a quarter of those at the 2008 meeting were from overseas. With experts from Denmark, the Netherlands, and the UK among this year’s speakers, the 2011 conference may attract more European attendance.
Early bird registration has been extended until January 14, after which registration fees will increase by several hundred dollars. IPAC-RS offers significantly reduced rates for students, academics, and government employees; IPAC-RS members also receive a discount off of the full registration fee.
