7th International Conference of SAC-ACCP held in Mumbai

The 7th International Annual Conference of the South Asian Chapter of American College of Clinical Pharmacology (SAC-ACCP) was recently held in Mumbai. The conference and pre-conference workshops were co-hosted by the National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health (NIRRH), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), GS Medical College, KEM Hospital, ESI-PGIMSR MGM Hospital and Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik MUHS. The theme of the conference was translational research.

The conference was inaugurated by Dr Anil Kakodkar, DAE Homi Bhabha Chair Professor and former Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission and Dr VM Katoch Secretary, Department of Health Research, and Director General, ICMR.

This year, two pre-conference workshops were also organised. Dr Stella Blackburn and Priya Bahri of ENCePP/EMA; Dr Rakhi Dhawan of NIMR and Dr Robin Ferner, Professor, Clincial Pharmacology, Birmingham, UK took part in the pharmacoepidemiology workshop. Workshop on Modeling and Simulation to support drug development decisions was organised by Dr Pravin Jadhav from Merck, US and his team.

Dr Renu Swarup from the Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India; Dr Samadhanam, Former Director, Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India and Dr Sarala Balachandran from CSIR spoke about the Government initiatives in India. Dr Mike Conlon from University of Florida spoke about NIH USA initiative and the clinical and translational science institute at the University of Florida. Dr JN Varma, researcher entrepreneur, spoke about his experience in marketing the liposomal amphotericin drug developed by Dr BK Bacchawat, Dr NA Kshirsagar and others at the Department of Biochemistry, Delhi University and GS Medical College, KEM Hospital Mumbai. Dr Utkarsh Palnitkar discussed the view points of investors and the financial implication of translational research.

Dr Prasad Kulkarni elaborated on issues in taking products like vaccines to large population for public health. National and international experts like Dr Rinti Banerjee (IIT Mumbai), Dr Shanti Nair (Amruta institute, Thiruvananthapuram), Dr Padma Devarajan (ICT Mumbai), Dr Gerd Arnold (Germany), Dr Mohan Raizada (US), Dr Vinayak Shenoy (US), and Dr Marcus Homepash (US) spoke about issues in product development, drug delivery systems and testing for nutraceuticals, leukaemia etc..

Dr RD Lele released a book titled ‘Emerging Trends in Phytopharmaceuticals’, edited by Dr Priyanka Ingle Jadhav, Dr Manoj Jadhav and Dr Kshirsagar.

A pre-conference workshop on pharmacoepidemiology was conducted by Dr Kshirsagar. She elaborated on the need for systematic review of data from India to help take policy and regulatory decisions nationally, and for drug therapeutics committees and individual patients locally. National registries were discussed by Dr Dhawan, Dr Abhimanyu Panda, Dr Narayani and Dr Harshad Devarbhavi.

Regulatory requirements were discussed by Dr Priya Bahri from EMA and Dr YK Gupta, Head, Department of Pharmacology and spokesperson, AIIMS from India. Dr Ferner and Dr Bahri discussed on how to take decisions with inadequate data.

Dr Chandrahas Sahajwalla from US FDA and Dr Lokesh Jain were present at the valedictory function where students were given best poster and best oral paper awards for clinical research, and preclinical studies and drug delivery systems. Dr Mrudula Phadke, former Vice Chancellor guided the students with her inspiring talk.

EP News Bureau – Mumbai