International Virtual Symposium Organized By Controlled Release Society India Chapter

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International Virtual Symposium Organized By Controlled Release Society India Chapter

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Controlled Release Society - Indian Chapter (CRS IC) organized its 19th International Symposium from 25th to 27th February 2021 on a virtual platform. The theme of the symposium was “Advances in Technology and Business Potential of New Drug Delivery Systems” This is a flagship event of CRSIC that is conducted every year in the month of February in Mumbai and has always been receiving excellent participation from academia as well as industry. This year since it was a virtual event, the symposium received an overwhelming response from the post-graduate students, academicians, and Industry with more than 800 registrations. Researchers from across the country as well as from USA, Ireland, UK, Oman, Germany, UAE, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia could also participate. 

The Inaugural session was started by a virtual lamp lighting at the hands of Dr. Yvonne Perrie Professor in Drug Delivery, University of Strathclyde, Scotland, UK and President, CRS Inc., who was our Guest of Honour. This was followed by a welcome address and a brief talk on the activities of the Indian Local Chapter by the President of CRSIC Dr. Parizad Elchidana, Principal Technical Consultant - Pharma, ACG.  Mr. Ajit Singh, Chairman ACG Worldwide, Ex-president and the patron member of CRS IC addressed the delegates regarding the importance of the research and novel drug delivery technologies in the advancement of the pharma sector. He also emphasized upon the involvement of the pharma and allied industry in the activities of organizations like CRSIC. Dr. Vandana Patravale, Professor of Pharmaceutics at Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai and Vice President of CRS IC and the editor of the Newsletter briefed the audience about the CRS IC e-Newsletter and the e-abstract book. Dr. Yvonne Perrie formally released the e-Newsletter and e- abstract book. The inaugural program concluded with the vote of thanks proposed by Dr. Vandana Patravale. The program was ably coordinated by Dr. Madhur Kulkarni, Associate Professor and HOD-Pharmaceutics, SCES’s Indira College of Pharmacy, Pune and Secretary, CRS IC.

Dr. Yvonne Perrie gave a plenary talk on “Designing Delivery Systems for mRNA Vaccines”. The session was chaired by Dr. Parizad Elchidana. Dr. Perrie summarized the development of self-amplifying mRNA vaccine encoding the rabies virus glycoprotein using non-viral delivery. Immunogenicity results demonstrated that both the administration route and delivery system format dictate self-amplifying RNA vaccine efficacy.

CRS India Chapter meeting

Her well-received session was followed by the talk of Dr. Mark Willcox. Dr. Wilcox is currently a Professor and Research Director at the School of Optometry and Vision Science, UNSW, Australia. He enlightened the audience on “Developing New Antimicrobial Coatings and Disinfectants for the Fight against COVID – 19.”  Prof. Mark shared the latest information on the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including its mutants and correlating it to its spread and persistence. He shared insights about different strategies for new antimicrobial coatings and surface disinfectants in reducing the spread of COVID-19, with a future vision to utilize these coatings on various surfaces including PPE.

CRS India Chapter meeting

Dr. Rakesh Tekade, Associate Professor, NIPER, Ahmedabad enlightened the delegates on “Hybridized Dendritic Technology for the Delivery of SiRNA Therapeutics”. He stressed the importance of a reliable in vivo carrier systems for delivering siRNA. He further spoke about his research which involves developing siRNA-dendrimer complexes hybridized with albumin as a biopolymer which enhanced serum stability, avoided nuclease degradation, and mediated cytosolic delivery of siRNA.

The sessions were chaired by Dr. Yogeshwar Bacchav, Director Adex Pharma and Member of Executive committee, CRS IC.

The scientific program of the day was followed by the Student Mentorship Session. The panel of mentors included Dr. Yvonne Perrie, Dr. Rakesh Tekade, Dr. Parizad Elchidana and Dr. Vandana Patravale. Dr. Milind Umekar, Principal Smt. Kishoritai Bhoyar College of Pharmacy, Nagpur coordinated the session.

CRS India Chapter meeting

The second day sessions started with an outstanding presentation of Prof. Marcelle Machluff, Dean, Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, Israel. She talked on a novel topic “Nanoghosts: A New Paradigm in the Drug Delivery Field”. She delivered an insightful talk on Nanoghosts and their applications. Technically, these are nano-vesicles derived from mesenchymal stem cells membrane, with a scalable and a cGMP compliant technology. The session was chaired by Dr. Vandana Patravale.

Dr. Cornelia Keck, Prof. of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics at The Philipps- Univesitat Marburg, Germany presented a session on “Fostering the Dermal and Transdermal Penetration of Active Compounds with Nanoparticles – Fascinating New Insight”. Prof. Keck’s talk highlighted the current scientific findings in nanoparticles assisted dermal and transdermal drug delivery of poorly soluble moieties. Further, she gave insights on novel strategies for targeted drug delivery through the skin and/ or into hair follicle.

Dr. Sara Cordeiro, Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Leicester School of Pharmacy, De Montfort University, UK spoke on “Microarray Patches for Transdermal Drug Delivery and Diagnostic Approaches”. She shared her team’s extensive research focusing on both fast dissolving and hydrogel-forming microarray patches for drug delivery. She added further saying that this could be useful for the treatment of conditions such as HIV/AIDS, treatment of skin conditions such as basal cell carcinoma, and even as a potential strategy to minimize antimicrobial resistance.

The sessions were ably chaired by Dr. Maharukh Rustomjee, Founder and Managing Partner of Amaterasu Lifesciences LLP.

Dr. Ijeoma Uchegbu, Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience, UCL School of Pharmacy, University College, London, UK was the Keynote speaker of the second day. She delivered an excellent presentation on “Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology and Drug Development” Dr. Ijeoma enlightened the audience on designing variety of self-assembling polymers and peptides and their utilization for nanomedicines to be administered by various routes. Preclinical data from her studies depicted advantageous biodistribution of the cargo highlighting some interesting mechanisms involved. The enlightening session was chaired by Dr. Vandana Patravale.

Dr. Sujata Sawarkar, Professor of Pharmaceutics, Bhanuben Nanavati College of Pharmacy, Mumbai coordinated all the sessions of the day 2.

The Student Mentorship Session included Dr. Sara, Dr. Cornelia, Dr. Ijeoma, Dr. Vandana and Dr. Maharukh as the mentors. All of them kindly and efficiently addressed the queries and doubts of the delegates.

The third and final day of the Symposium had Dr. Padma Devarajan, Professor of Pharmaceutics, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, and the patron member of CRS IC chair the 1st scientific session of the day. Dr. Amirali Popat, Director of Research at the University of Queensland’s School of Pharmacy & President- CRS Australia presented the topic of “Emerging Trends in Stimuli Responsive Oral Drug Delivery”. He delivered a talk on Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles (MSNs) nanocomposites to formulate drug/peptide/gene delivery dosage forms. Application in the treatment of IBD, Diabetes, TB, and Cancer were duly discussed.

Dr. Andy De, Senior Director, Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry Solutions, Texas, USA delivered a session on “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Analytics in Healthcare in the Emerging Post-Pandemic New Normal”. Mr. De focussed on current and forward-looking trends in healthcare analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) impacting the undulating landscape of healthcare innovation for healthcare providers and payers. His real-world examples of customer successes featuring Healthcare Industry Leaders from the US, and how these have delivered measurable value to their organizations made the lecture much more easy-to-grasp and connective for the audience.

Dr. Kiran Krishnan, Senior Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs, Apotex Corp., USA addressed the session entitled “Regulatory Considerations and Challenges with Nanoparticle Based Drug Delivery Systems”. Dr. Krishnan provided an overview of the global regulatory status of nanoparticle-based drug delivery system. This became more transpicuous when he discussed case studies of regulatory challenges that manufacturer encounter as they develop these products. Further, he stressed the need of regulatory convergence.

Dr. Justin Hanes, Professor and Director of the Centre for Nanomedicine at the John Hopkins University, USA and Immediate Past President CRS Inc. was a Keynote speaker on the third day. He presented the talk on “Drug Delivery to the Eye: From Concept to Clinical Success”. Dr. Justin elaborated on designing mucosal penetrating peptides to overcome mucosal barrier in ophthalmic delivery. He also highlighted and elaborated on few technologies developed by his group and their successful translation to industry.

The sessions were chaired by Dr. Hitesh Doshi, Vice-President R&D, Sulphur Mills Ltd and Ex- Treasurer and Vice President, CRS IC.

Valedictory Function

Dr. B. Suresh Pro Chancellor, JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research, Mysuru was invited as the chief guest of the valedictory function. The best poster presenter Ms. Ahana Banerjee, PhD student at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi was given the Young Scientist Award instituted by Dr. Bhalla. The candidate will also be representing her research at CRS Inc. on “Co-Delivery of Chx/Pdgf From Layered Hydrogel Scaffold for the Regulation of Diabetic Wound Microenvironment”.

The first, second and third prize of the poster presentation was also given away at the hands of Dr. Suresh.

Ms. Vineeta Sharma, PhD Student at Indian Institute of Technology Madras received the first prize for her research presentation on “Cardiac Function Restoration by Co-Delivery of 5-Azacytidine in Protein Nanoparticles for Effective Stem Cell Differentiation in Rat Myocardial Infarction.” The second prize went to Mr. Juber Pendhari, Master’s student at Bombay College of Pharmacy for his poster on “Mitochondria Targeted Liposomes of Metformin for Improved Anticancer Activity Preparation and Evaluation” and Mr. Dinesh Choudhary, Master’s student National Institute of Pharmacy Education and Research, Guwahati  received the third prize for his poster on Feasibility of Extruding, Printing and Enteric Coating of a Non-Enteric 3D Printed Hollow Capsular Device Using Eudragit® Polymers with Diverse Drug Release Characteristics

Uniqueness of the Symposium.

The symposium was an overall success with an excellent virtual platform and further backend support provided by Mr. Tarun Soni CEO of Novel Innovative Concepts Interactive Pvt. Ltd. The Symposium was unique in several ways. The registration was offered free of charge to all the CRSIC members. 66 e- posters along with the video presentations were made available for viewing throughout the 3 days of the symposium. The delegates had an opportunity to have live online interaction with the poster presenters during these three days. To enhance the engagement of the participants in the virtual program, brownie points were assigned for visiting the posters, interacting with the poster presenters, other delegates as well as with the speakers. Even a virtual selfie booth was set up for delegates to take a selfie and upload on the social media.

The Student mentorship sessions which were introduced for the first time on day 1 and 2 of the symposium wherein the invited speakers of the day mentored the young researchers on various aspects of research methodology were a runaway success with the participants.

One more unique feature of this symposium includes the “Go Green Drive to Save Planet” adapted by CRSIC.  As a part of this drive, each invited speaker at the symposium was presented with a “Go Green Certificate” and a tree would be planted on behalf of each invited speaker at Tatyasaheb Kore College of Pharmacy, Kolhapur.  The trees would be the epitome of the ever-lasting bond between the speakers and the CRS IC.

Sponsorships

The symposium could not have been a success without our sponsors who were from Pharma and Allied industry

Sun Pharma, the number one Pharma Company in India was an overall Master Event sponsor, with Merck, Arihant Innochem in collaboration with Lubrizol Lifesciences and ACG were the Tech Showcase Sponsors

Ashland, Abitech Corporation and Merck provided advertisement sponsorship for the e - Abstract Book.

Authors

Dr. Parizad Elchidana - President

Dr. Vandana Patravale – Vice President

Dr. Madhur Kulkarni - Secretar

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