The 2015 Drug Delivery to the Lungs meeting promises a diverse program focused on some of the latest trends in inhaled drug development. At least 500 OINDP specialists are expected to attend DDL 26, December 9-11 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, for two and a half days of presentations, posters, and technology exhibits.
According to DDL 26 committee members Janet Maas and Ben Forbes, this year’s program features a wide range of speakers, ranging from up-and-coming researchers who are presenting truly novel work, to some of the best-known experts in respiratory drug delivery, who will provide comprehensive overviews of the industry and of trends in inhaled medicine.
Presenters hail from a number of different countries, including the US, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Germany, and India. “We’re very international this year,” Forbes says, “We’ve evolved from being a mostly UK conference to a genuinely international conference now.”
The meeting is also addressing very current industry concerns, Maas points out, with many of the 2015 presentations having a greater emphasis on scale up and biologicals: “The talks are becoming more practical about what the industry needs to do to get these compounds onto the market. The inhalation industry is waking up to the fact that biologics are becoming more and more the norm, so what have been regarded as specialist techniques will have to become the norm as well.”
Highlighted presentations include the annual DDL lecture by Anne Haaije de Boer of the University of Groningen, co-developer of the Novolizer and Twincer inhalers, who will speak about “Factors Affecting DPI Development – from Bench to Bedside” and the plenary lecture, which will be delivered by Professor Bruce Rubin, Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Virginia Commonwealth University, on “Aerosol Therapies for Cystic Fibrosis:The Present, the Promise, the Potential, the Problems.”
Sessions particularly focused on innovation in OINDP targets, development, and manufacturing include “Advances in Devices and Technology” and “Current Hot Topics in Airway Diseases.” The meeting will also include reports and posters from the BREATHE Respiratory Hackathons which took place on September 19th and 20th, 2015 with a total of 30 teams in Boston, London, and Tel Aviv “hacking” various types of respiratory equipment, with the goal of generating “ideas that push the status quo and challenge the respiratory industry to innovate around patient-centered wellness.”
Forbes cites the Pat Burnell New Investigator Awards session as another highlight: “The quality is again very good this year; the finalists are very diverse and very high quality with really quite novel and substantial pieces of work.” Presentation of the Pat Burnell New Investigator Award will take place during a reception and ceremony at the end of the day on Thursday, December 10.
Other networking opportunities include lunches and an evening drinks reception held among ~70 exhibitor booths in the EICC’s Lennox Suite. Delegates will also have the opportunity to interact with the authors of about 80 posters during refreshment breaks.
Platinum and Gold sponsors for DDL 26 include 3M Drug Delivery Systems, Aptar Pharma, Copley Scientific, DFE Pharma, Intertek Melbourn, Presspart, Proveris Scientific, and Team Consulting. Other exhibitors include Astech Projects, Capsugel, CD-adapco, Molins Technologies,
