The newly established South Asian Chapter of American Association of Clinical Pharmacology's first international conference on 'Contemporary Issues and Future Challenges in Drug Development' will be held at Nehru Centre, Worli in Mumbai from October 5 to 7, 2007. The conference will be inaugurated by Dilip Valse Patil, Minister of Energy and Medical, Higher and Technical Education, Govt. of Maharashtra.

Dr Vimal Mundada, Minister for Public Health and Family Welfare, Maharashtra, Dr Shubha Raul- Mayor, Mumbai, Dr Purshuram D Desai-Public Health Committee Chairman, MCGM and Jairaj Phatak, MCGM will be the guests of honour.

South Asian Chapter of American Association of Clinical Pharmacology president Dr Neelima Kshirsagar said that the conference will focus on contemporary issues and future challenges. Dr Lehamann (Prof -New York) who is representing American College of Clinical Pharmacology will give a keynote address on US FDA, lesson learned from experiences of serious adverse drug reactions occurring to marketed drugs, thus critically looking at the regulatory process.

Several speakers will discuss new and novel drug delivery systems, such as liposomal dry powder inhaler formulation of use for delivering narcotic analgesic systemically or for restricting steroids to lungs pulmonary disorders by Dr Misra - TIFAC core in NDDS- Gujarat, in situ gelling system by Dr Neeraj Kumar National Institute of Pharmaceutical & Educational Research (NIPER)- Punjab, site specific and sustained delivery to colons for drugs required for effect at night such as for nocturnal asthma, angina, and arthritis by Prof. Sinha of Punjab University.

Dr Prasad Kulkarni, Serum Institute, Pune will highlight the history as well as the advances and future plans of vaccine development in the country. Dr. Veena Jaguste of Amgen technology- Andheri will speak on immunogenecity, safety and equivalence. Dr Sarma Duddu, Nektar will speak on diabetics. Prof A K Azad Khan, Diabetic Association from Bangladesh will be speaking on Plant material as a source of antidiabetic agent. Atanu Basu of National institute of virology, Pune- will speak on complexities of viral diseases and how modern technology such as cryo electron microscopy helps in drug development. Dr Ramesh Paranjape and Dr Sanjay Mehendale, NARI, - Pune, will speak on development of vaccine and microbicide for HIV AIDS. Dr Rashmi Barbhaiya, Advinus therapeutics, Bangalore, will deliberate on how some of today's blockbuster anti-infective drugs were developed. Dr. Pierre from USA will speak on action of inhalation on insulin while Dr Adithan - JIPMER - Podicherry and Dr Shoibal Mukherjee Ranbaxy will speak on genetics and adverse drug reaction and impact of genetics on drug development.