Respiratory Drug Delivery Asia 2014 - In Review

The first Respiratory Drug Delivery® meeting in Asia was an unqualified success in almost everyone’s opinion. Held over November 12 - 14, 2014, in the lush surroundings of the Goa Marriott Resort & Spa, Goa, India, the only common complaint was that the meeting was not longer. RDD Asia 2014 maintained its historic focus on state-of-the-art development of pulmonary and nasal pharmaceutical products, and featured a plenary lecture by Dr. Stephen Newman, “Platforms for Aerosol Drug Delivery: Ensuring Therapeutic Success,” designed to educate less experienced participants so they would maximally benefit from the presentations that followed.

This Asia-centric conference attracted participants from seventeen countries including India, Bangladesh, China, Singapore, Thailand Japan and Malaysia. The balance of the over 220 delegates came from Europe and North America. In total, RDD Online and Aptar Pharma were honored to co-host delegates from the five continents. Though modest by the standards of recent US and European RDD meetings, RDD Asia 2014 was three times the size of the first RDD meeting and appropriately recognized Asia’s emergence as an engine of inhaled and nasal pharmaceutical development and patient care.

Typical of RDD meetings, most delegates worked in the pharmaceutical industry (45%), drug delivery devices (17%) or instrumentation (10%), but academics, excipient suppliers, consultants, manufacturing and contract research organizations were well represented, and joined by a smaller number of legal, financial, government and organization staff.

Speakers

Internationally known and aspiring speakers provided a wealth of information during sessions on Quality by Design, Ensuring Access to Inhaled Medicines, Ensuring Quality of Inhaled Products, Patent Laws and Global Regulation. Many of these provided a uniquely Asian perspective and resulted in lively discussion with the audience, some of which carried over into an hour-long discussion panel.

Posters, Technology Exhibition and Workshops

RDD Asia 2014 continued the tradition of excellent scientific and commercial networking during RDD’s Scientific Poster and Technology Exhibition. Companies sponsored twenty five exhibition tables on two floors and reported lively conversations and a lot of interest in their products and services over the entire two days of the conference.

Six companies provided a more personalized conference experience to participants by providing hands-on demonstrations or case studies during workshop sessions. Delegates each selected up to three workshops, and also had an opportunity to view scientific posters covering a variety of topics highlighting innovations in pulmonary and nasal delivery.

Collectively, these events brought together representatives of the world’s pharmaceutical companies active in the nasal and pulmonary areas together with suppliers, service providers and regulators in a relaxed atmosphere that fostered easy communication and networking.

Networking

No description of an event in India is complete without a mention of food and dancing. Superb Indian and international cuisine was plentiful at the welcome reception, both lunches and the evening Gala dinner sponsored by Aptar Pharma at Bay 15 on the banks of the Mandovi River. The dancing began with traditional Goan folk dancers and finished in Bollywood style by conference delegates. The event was a great opportunity for first-time RDD attendees or visitors to India to meet and interact with regular attendees and local delegates. If Goa permitted live outdoor music after 10:00 pm, the party would still be going on!

Conference Proceedings

Peer-reviewed speaker papers and poster abstracts were made available in print to all delegates. Access via WiFi was also available during the conference. Subscription access to the entire searchable database of RDD papers, hard copies of all proceedings, educational presentations, job postings, a calendar of events relevant to the aerosol scientist or manager, and an electronic order form for copies of Dr. Newman’s book; Respiratory Drug Delivery: Essential Theory and Practice (available in English and Chinese) are available at rddonline.com.

Future Meetings

The organizers thank the presenters, exhibitors, sponsors and all those in attendance who make the annual, and now expanded Respiratory Drug Delivery series a success. We hope to see you at Respiratory Drug Delivery Europe 2015, to be held in Nice, France, May 5-8, 2015, and Respiratory Drug Delivery 2016 will be held at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa, Phoenix, Arizona, April 17-21, 2016. Please contact info@rddonline.com with programming or speaker suggestions or to offer sponsorship without which the meetings would not be possible.

Photographs printed with permission.