Breathing Easily at DDL 2019
One of my favorite conferences to attend is the Drug Delivery to the Lungs DDL conference in Edinburgh. This year is its 30th anniversary and, with the festive season now started, it promises to be a good celebration.
The conference brings together a broad spectrum of scientists from academia, industry and regulatory agencies with the purpose of discussing the development of medicines for inhalation related illnesses such as asthma and COPD.
The program includes a mix of cutting-edge science, industry reviews and globally important themes. This includes discussion on the impact of inhaler use on the environment, with talks including: ‘The environmental impact of MDI propellants – what now?; ‘Sustainable Inhalers – future challenges, threats and opportunities’ and one I am particularly interested in is ‘Inhaled microplastics: an unrecognized health issue?’. At Malvern Panalytical we have been looking at various applications related to microplastics on the Morphologi 4-ID, so I look forward to learning more about their relevance to inhalation.
It’s always interesting to see what young researchers are up to and The Pat Burnell Young Investigator Award gives a fantastic opportunity for some to present their work. This year we will also be finding out what previous winners of the award are doing now.
There is always a varied array of themes covered in the poster session too with over 80 posters being presented this year. Of course, we enjoy finding out who has been using our materials characterization equipment! We are also co-authoring poster number 17 with scientists from Intertek Melbourne and Copley Scientific Ltd. It is titled ‘Investigation of DPI Particle Microstructure by MDRS to Explain Differences Observed in NGI Results Between Equivalent Products’ this explains how we used Morphologi 4-ID to study samples collected from an NGI to understand the differences observed between two equivalent commercially available Dry Powder Inhaler (DPI) products.
We have also previously collaborated with the Nanopharm Ltd, the authors of poster 29 ‘Investigating the effect of nasal suspension rheology on API particle size and dissolution properties’ so we look forward to seeing their latest work combing results from several of our analytical techniques.
If you are making your way to Edinburgh next week do come and see Dr. Paul Kippax, Andrew Lake and myself on stand 160.