Speaker Spotlight: 5 Questions with Dr. Natalia Dadivanyan on Small Molecule Drug Development

Small molecule drug development rarely fails because of one big issue—it’s the accumulation of hidden risks. Solid-state instability, polymorphic transitions, and unpredictable powder behaviour continue to delay timelines and complicate scale-up.

So how are leading teams tackling these challenges earlier—and with more confidence?

In this Speaker Spotlight, Dr. Natalia Dadivanyan shares what she’s seeing across the industry, the analytical approaches making the biggest impact, and where teams are gaining the most ground today.

Natalia will be speaking at Malvern Panalytical’s 4th Annual UK Pharmaceutical Conference—a one-day event focused on solving real-world challenges in small molecule development.

Meet the speaker

Today’s Speaker Spotlight features Dr. Natalia Dadivanyan, Market Development Manager for Small Molecule Pharmaceuticals at Malvern Panalytical. With a background spanning academic research, analytical chemistry, and industry collaboration, Natalia brings a unique perspective on how analytical insight accelerates solid‑state and formulation decisions.

I sat down with her to discuss the evolving landscape of small molecule development, the challenges scientists face today, and what attendees can expect to learn at this year’s conference.

5 Questions

1. From your conversations with key opinion leaders and customers, what are the biggest solid‑state challenges you see across the industry today?

The biggest challenge is stability, lack of solid-state stability to be more precise. It can be related Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API), e.g. polymorphism or even transition from amorphous to crystalline form. But also, if we look at formulations, there are more parameters to keep an eye on: is the particle size staying where it should be, are there any deviations in particle shape? Are these going to change rheological properties of the powders to be processed in various drug products, be that OSDs or OINDPs?

2. You translate the analytical challenges of pharmaceutical scientists into analytical solutions every day. Which tools or approaches are making the biggest difference?
The combination of multiple techniques and experiments is most attractive these days. In situ solid form assessment is attracting a lot of attention. Ability of varying temperature and/or relative humidity can help predicting shelf life of future drug products very early in development process. Another powerful combination is combining information about particle size and shape with flow properties of the powder. This helps assessing processability of formulations and helps saving time and reduce down-time during manufacturing.

3.  Without giving too much away… what will you be discussing at Malvern Panalytical’s UK Pharma Conference?
Malvern Panalytical’s UK Pharma Conference is all about sharing knowledge and good practices within Small Molecule Pharma community. We will have our instruments users (both from pharma industry and our own application scientists) talking about their experience with Malvern Panalytical portfolio. This year we focus on Small Molecule Pharmaceuticals in solid form, so, it will be mainly about getting the best out of your pharma powders.

4. You talk about enabling “faster, more confident decisions from early screening through to commercial manufacture.” Where in the development lifecycle do you see the biggest gains when teams adopt this combined toolkit?
It is definitely in Scale-up and Manufacturing. This is where both Malvern Panalytical and Micromeritics have the strongest impact. Here we can support with almost every single analytical technique from our portfolio starting from X-ray fluorescence for detecting chemical impurities and X-ray diffraction for polymorph validation in API synthesis scale-up, followed by advanced formulation characterization using laser diffraction, analytical imaging, pycnometry, BET and powder rheometry. And this is without even mentioning Discovery portfolio!

5. And finally, why should someone attend this year’s conference?
We have a great line-up of speakers! Confirmed speakers include, Dr. Jonathan Loughrey, Director of Chemical Development from Almac Group, and Professor Yvonne Perrie from the University of Strathclyde – with more to be announced soon!

I am very excited to hear from KOLs of the UK’s pharmaceutical community how they are making the best out of our portfolio as well as to hearing from my colleagues about the latest product developments coming from Malvern Panalytical and our application specialists sharing best practice.

Join us in Birmingham!

If these challenges sound familiar, Malvern Panalytical’s UK Pharmaceutical Conference is designed for you. You’ll hear directly from industry experts and users tackling solid-state and formulation challenges every day—sharing practical approaches you can apply immediately.

Early bird registration closes April 30th
Secure your place now for just £75 (includes lunch, refreshments, and evening networking with drinks and canapés).

Explore the full agenda and register here →

Don’t miss the chance to learn directly from speakers like Dr. Natalia Dadivanyan and dive deep into the challenges and opportunities shaping small molecule drug development.