Society for Pharmaceutical Science (SPDS) organises Disso India-Chandigarh 2019

Society for Pharmaceutical Dissolution Science (SPDS) recently conducted its seventh annual international conference Disso India–Chandigarh 2019, jointly with the National Institute of Pharma Education and Research (NIPER), SAS Nagar. The event promoted the introduction of new technology and innovation, and deliberations on various issues related to dissolution testing and its applications.

Attended by more than 200 delegates from the industry and academia, the event comprised of plenary lectures, panel discussions, exhibits and poster sessions.

The conference began with an auspicious lamp lighting ceremony after which industry veterans addressed the audience. The eminent dignitaries included Chief Guest Ajit Singh, Chairman ACG; Visala Annam, Deputy Drugs Controller, Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO); Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHF&W); Pardeep Mattu, State Drug Controller, Punjab; N K Ahooja, Co-chair, Disso India-Chandigarh 2019; Vijay Kshirsagar, Founder President, SPDS and Director and CEO, TRAC Pharma Consulting; Professor Raghuram Rao Akkinepally, Director, NIPER, SAS Nagar; Professor Arvind Bansal, Head-Department of Pharmaceutics, NIPER, SAS Nagar and Dr L Ramaswamy, Founder General Secretary, SPDS and Managing Director, Sotax India.

Beginning his address, Professor Akkinepally said, “We want the DCGI and MoHF&W to help us in our effort for establishing a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in dissolution studies at NIPER, jointly with SPDS.

Sharing an important aspect about SPDS, Kshirsagar informed that with its roots in India, SPDS has moved globally. “SPDS was born in India, and it has moved globally now which is indeed a matter of pride for us,” he said. Also, he requested the regulators to consider and include SPDS as an official source to suggest modifications needed time to time in pharmacopoeia and related guidelines.

Singh went back to the history of pharmaceutical research in India and told the audience how NIPER, SAS Nagar came to being the oldest institution among the seven NIPER(s) in the country. “When NIPER, SAS Nagar was founded, no major pharmaceutical research was taking place in India. It was late Dr Parvinder Singh, former Chairman, Ranbaxy, who made it his passion to make sure that NIPER was built in Chandigarh,” he told the audience.

Annam talked about the generic drugs and said, “We need to do a lot to improve the quality of generic drugs in the country and across the world.” She also spoke on clinical trials adding, “The government of India has brought in several rules to strengthen clinical trials and conduct them ethically.”

Next, Dr Ramaswamy, in his address, notified, “SPDS began in 2012 and it has registered its local chapter in the USA recently with the help and initiative by Patrick Balmer who is heading Sotax operations in the USA, under the guidance of Dr Vinod P Shah, Pharma Consultant and Ex-US FDA.”

Thereafter, SPDS recognised the contributions of Professor Imre Klebovich, Head of Department of Pharmaceutics of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Semmelweis University Budapest, Hungary and honoured him with the Award for Excellence in Pharmaceutical Dissolution Science. His main research interests are bioanalytics, pharmacokinetics, metabolism, biopharmaceutics, bioequivalence, food-drug interactions and drug delivery. He has 25 patents, has published more than 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals, 10 books, 17 book chapters as well as co-editorial works in books and more than 460 lectures on Hungarian and international conferences.

Later, Dr Vinod P Shah, Pharma Consultant and Ex-US FDA, talked about BCS, dissolution and biowaiver. Following this, Dr Raj Suryanarayana, PhD, Professor and William and Mildred Peters Endowed Chair, Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, University of Minnesota delivered his talk on dissolution enhancement by modulating the physical form of the API. The effect of surface anisotropy of crystal habits on dissolution performance was discussed by Dr Bansal, while Seema Trivedi, GM – Technical, Anshul Life Sciences, talked about excipients’ role in modifying dissolution. Critical process parameters affecting dissolution was discussed by Dr Deo Narain Dikshit, Director, Aqex Pharmasolutions; Dr BS Bhoop, Professor Emeritus, Punjab University talked about implementation of QbD for dissolution testing; solubility to permeability to bioavailability:connecting the dots was brought to the limelight by Dr Namita Varde, PhD, Application Scientist, Electrolab India, and Michel Magnier, Product Manager and Application Specialist, SOTAX AG, Switzerland, told the audience about dissolution qualification – general concerns and indirect importance of automation.

The next day again began with Dr Shah, delivering his talk on topical drug classification (TCS) followed by Dr Paul W S Heng from GEA-NUS Pharm Processing Res Lab, Department of Pharmacy, National University talking about the importance of dissolution studies in evaluation of DPIs and dissolution of topical product being discussed by Dr Rajeev Raghuvanshi from Dr Reddy’s. Afterwards, Professor Dr Padma Devarajan from Institute of Chemical Technology talked about practical approaches for dissolution testing of nano formulations and Samir Haddouchi, Managing Director, SPS Pharma Services, talking about other NDDS/differentiated products and long acting parenterals. Kshirsagar made people understand about the regulatory aspects of dissolution, while Dr Umesh Banakar, Professor and President, Banakar Consulting Services, made people aware of the patent opportunities with dissolution studies, and the topic efficiently automated UV/VIS spectroscopy was touched upon by Atul Yelpale, Product Specialist – Anachem Mettler – Toledo India.

Also, students presented their posters on various aspects of dissolution. The first and second prizes were bagged by Centre for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Department of Pharmaceutics, NIPER, SAS Nagar for novel amphotericin B – lipid conjugate loaded enteric coated liposomes for improved gastric stability and oral bioavailability of amphotericin B and Department of Pharmaceutics, NIPER, SAS Nagar for application of physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling to understand the effect of particle size distribution (PSD) on biopharmaceutical performance of fenofibrate (FNT) nanosuspensions, respectively, while the third prize was bagged by Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology (Deemed University) for flow through dissolution of co-encapsulated anti-tubercular drug microparticles in biorelevant lung media.

Prior to the event day, a pre-conference workshop ‘Fundamentals of Dissolution Science’ of Disso India-Chandigarh 2019 was also organised at the NIPER campus, wherein the industry professionals shared their experiences and knowledge with the undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as PhD scholars.

Currently, SPDS is also in talks with Chinese delegation to organise Disso China in April 2020 and Disso USA in September 2020 with the US Chapter.

SPDS is the only association dealing with the subject of dissolution and the only Indian association to get registered in the USA. It has also published a reference Desk Book on Dissolution Science and its Applications which is useful for pharma scientists across the globe, pharmacy students and the analysts who are working in the area of dissolution testing.