The annual Drug Delivery to the Lungs (DDL) conference will mark its 35th anniversary during this year’s meeting, which will take place December 11-13 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC). Organizers have set a registration deadline of Sunday, November 10 to assist them in finalizing plans for a gala dinner celebrating the 35th anniversary.
The gala dinner, which will take place at the National Museum of Scotland, is responsible for an additional schedule change, notes organizing committee member Michelle Dawson. Unlike previous years when associated organizations often held workshops on the morning of the first day of DDL and the conference itself began in the afternoon, this year’s DDL will start the morning of December 11. Then, on Thursday, the scientific sessions will end a little earlier than usual to allow delegates to get ready for the dinner. DDL 2024 will conclude on Friday following the morning podium session.
“The DDL organizing committee are extremely proud to contribute to the ongoing growth of the conference and supporting its current position as a major event in the aerosol science calendar today following its inception as a one-day event at Glaxo (now GSK) Ware in 1989,” Dawson says. Organizers expect that the 2024 edition will be about the same size as DDL 2023, which was attended by more than 100 OINDP specialists online and more than 930 in person at the EICC.
Participation in the technology exhibition has grown tremendously, as has sponsorship, which was sold out by the end of September. A total of 18 companies have signed on as Platinum sponsors of the conference, with an additional 9 companies as Gold sponsors, and Aptar, Bespak, Intertek, and Kindeva Drug Delivery are jointly sponsoring the gala dinner. Among the 95 Silver sponsors, many are companies that will be exhibiting at Drug Delivery to the Lungs for the first time.
The increase in abstract submissions has also been substantial. According to Dawson, the organizing committee received more than 180 abstract submissions for DDL 2024, including 31 submitted for the Pat Burnell Young Investigator Award. In order to accommodate the large number of posters, the poster session will take place in a different area from the technology exhibit, with refreshments available in both areas. The expanded meeting footprint, which was initiated last year, received very positive feedback from DDL 2023 delegate, Dawson says.
Dawson attributes some of the meeting’s success to DDL’s mission of bringing the industry together. “We are not a commercial enterprise;” she emphasizes, “this is about providing an educational forum to support research in the field of respiratory delivery and promote scientific networking.” She adds that any money provided by sponsors that is not used for the conference itself is distributed throughout the year in the form of career development grants to fund OINDP research.
