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EVENTS



IPEC - EUROPE

Chemistry Today - Chimica Oggi had the pleasure to attend the 2nd European conference on Pharmaceutical Excipients which was held in Berlin from 26th until 27th November 2012.
It was a successful re-launch of the 1st Conference held in 2008. About 80 participants out of industry and academia came to Berlin to follow the scientific talks presented by 15 speakers from different pharmaceutical backgrounds, such as industry, university and public bodies, for instance. In two days the conference covered topics on excipient compliance, regulations, risk assessment regarding use of excipients, specific requirements and novel excipients, just to name a few.
From our point of view, some of the talks of major interest were presented by Giuliano Minestrin, Karl Kolter and Pascal Furer. Minestrin, Head of Global Supply Chain Quality System F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Switzerland, gave a talk titled “What does a global pharmaceutical company expect from excipient suppliers in the light of current regulation?”, and focused on the expectations of excipient users and the impact of regulation on business relationships. Kolter, Head of R&D Pharma Ingredients BASF SE, Germany, spoke about “Novel excipients – from scratch to launch”, entering into details of definitions of types of new excipients, description of the development process, challenges and success factors. Furrer, University of Geneva, Switzerland, concentrated on “European Pharmacopoeia Perspective on functionality-related characteristics of Pharmaceutical Excipients” explaining the performance, physical and chemical properties of excipients and gave some hints on the regulatory situation.
To support the theoretical part during the conference, companies such as Aug. Hedinger GmbH & Co. KG, Evonik Industries AG, Harke Pharma GmbH, Molkerei Meggle GmbH & Co. KG and JRS Pharma GmbH & Co. KG showcased their products and services in a small exhibition area.
Furthermore, 3 parallel sessions were offered to “Get A Practical Approach”. Many possibilities to network and discuss during and after the event were given and also the chances to do so were taken by the participants, speakers and exhibitors.
To refresh from an “information-packed” first day, all participants were invited to go on a Berlin City Tour at night, ending with a dinner in an historical event location called “Alte Pumpe”.
We are looking forward to the upcoming 3rd Conference.
More information and dates will be published soon on: www.ipec-europe.org and www.apv-mainz.de.


EUROTIDES

Chimica Oggi/Chemistry Today had the pleasure to attend also EuroTIDES. The annual EuroTIDES and recently introduce EuroPEPTIDES conference returned to the Maritim Hotel in Berlin on November 27th 2012. The focus of the event was to explore all the latest ground breaking advances across both topics including clinical, research, manufacturing and delivery. With a highly experienced panel of speakers the event experienced a growth of 27%, with over 200 biopharm professionals converging at the conference. Key highlights to emerge from the meeting are indicated here below.
Oligonucleotides
 
  • Dr Nicholas Dean, Founder and former CSO, Excaliard Pharmaceuticals, gave a presentation reviewing Excaliard’s strategy for the early development of EXC001, including preclinical, early clinical results and the path to commercialisation and how this was successfully acquired by Pfizer Inc in December 2011.
  • After more than 20 years, antisense therapy appears closer than ever to becoming a new, robust platform for the development of novel therapeutics against human diseases. Dr Henrik Ørum, CSO of Santaris Pharma A/S, gave a historical overview and looked at remaining technological challenges that need to be addressed to maximise its therapeutic reach.
  • Dr Art Kreig, formerly CSO of Pfizer and now CEO of RaNA gave an interesting review of the current status of oligonucleotide development and the landscape for investment and funding
  • The challenge of clinical trials in rare diseases which includes difficulty in powering for efficacy, patient identification and recruitment and patient burden was presented by Dr Giles Campion, Chief Medical Officer, Prosensa using the therapeutic exon skipping in Duchenne Muscular Dystropy.

Peptides
 

  • For the first time both Roche & Affymax discussed their experiences in the field. Roche presented Stapled Peptides and the progress of these type of compounds towards to the clinic whilst Affymax shared the data on their FDA approved Pegylated peptide.
  • Manufacturing processes behind peptides and optimising the synthesis and scale up projects continued to be a key highlight with some critical insight being shared by Ipsen.
  • The non-invasive delivery of Peptides including buccal, oral and nasal delivery were also discussed.

According to a survey conducted at the conference, participants gave the conference an overall rating of 4.2 out of 5, 4 for the conferences content and 4.3 for the networking opportunities. According to Louisa Maitland, Conference Producer at Informa Life Sciences explains “We are very pleased with the feedback we have received from participants. We have taken great care in preparing a programm that is relevant to the industry and we thank everyone for their support”. EuroTIDES & EuroPEPTIDES will return in 2013, with the conference moving to Prague on the 4th & 5th of December 2013. The move is an attempt to answer enquires from Central and Eastern Europe.