PSTU-05 - Advancing opportunities for patient-centric drug delivery systems

Meeting room 2.40
Organised by The FIP Academic Pharmacy Section in collaboration with the FIP Board of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the FIP Special Interest Group on Drug Delivery and Manufacturing

Chair(s)

Prof. Yahya Choonara, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Introduction

This session addresses key challenges and opportunities in designing 21st-century patient-centric drug delivery systems for illnesses that disproportionately affect Africa and/or other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). A deeper understanding of the pathology of diseases and their increasing prevalence requires the development of new innovative approaches to drug delivery. Advanced drug delivery provides the opportunity to produce more patient-centric medicines (for e.g. in special patient populations such as pediatrics) with superior drug safety, efficacy and quality profile. Innovative drug delivery systems can transform the management of chronic diseases by reducing drug side-effects, improving patient compliance and shortening treatment regimens for communicable and non-communicable diseases.

This overall theme aims to explore promising and innovative medicine delivery systems to improve treatment outcomes. Insights from this session will help researchers, caregivers and industry stakeholders address the complexities of treating disease and explore new ways of changing clinical practice.

Programme

 

11:00 – 11:05

Introduction by the chair
11:05 – 11:20

Short oral communication from a selected submitted abstract:
Developing a digital unified global patient-centric-counseling model from a pilot study: Comparative analysis of the global patient-centered care models across four continents
Dr Miriam Ansong, Access Health Institute Academy International, USA
11:20 – 11:50 The role of nanomedicines for transforming treatment of bacterial infections
Prof. Thirumala Govender, University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
11:50 – 12:20 Translation of microneedle technologies from the lab to the clinic
Prof. Mark Prausnitz, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA 
12:20 – 12:30 Q&A and closing by the chair

Learning objectives

  • To get a deep understanding of innovative medicine delivery approaches to provide more patient-centric medicines while understanding the unique challenges associated with their development in Africa and low- or middle-income countries (LMICs).
  • To develop proficiency in using drug delivery tools such as nanomedicine for improving medicine bioavailability and pathogen targeting.
  • To recognise the need for more cost-effective approaches to treat chronic infectious diseases that ravage LMICs and new models to address formulation challenges in specific/specialised patient populations (e.g. in pediatrics and for women reproductive health).

Take home messages

  • We cannot have a “one-size-fits-all” approach when treating diseases.
  • Significant advancements have been made with several new innovative medicine delivery systems reaching patients.
  • More patient/population-centric approaches are required and better medicine delivery methods should be explored in parallel with drug discovery programmes.