The Catalent Institute recently held a symposium on the topic of “Advanced Drug Delivery Approaches for Small and Large Molecules” in cooperation with experts from 3M Drug Delivery Systems, Catalent Pharma Solutions, Saarland University and Lipp Life Sciences. The event, which took place in Bracknell, Berkshire, at the 3M UK Customer Innovation Center, brought together a multitude of industry experts. Visitors were briefed on the latest research in drug delivery, given an opportunity to discuss drug development challenges with an expert panel, and encouraged to network with other scientists from industry and academia.

The event began with a welcome from Christiane Gruen, director of 3M UK & Ireland, and Terry Robinson, executive director of the Catalent Institute. These leaders kicked off the day with a presentation about achieving optimal delivery mechanisms during the product commercialization process through optimizing processes early on in development.

Additional presentations followed on topics including transdermal applications and vaccine delivery, bioavailability enhancement tools, and patient-centric drug design. The day concluded with an expert panel discussion featuring Kirsty Gapp and Mark Tomai from 3M; Terry Robinson and Julien Messionier from the Catalent Institute; Per Anderson from Catalent; Ralph Lipp from Lipp Life Sciences; Claus-Michael Lehr from Saarland University; and Elanor Pinto from Catalent Micron Technologies.

The setting for the event, the 3M Customer Innovation Center, gave attendees an immersive experience with 3M’s technology portfolio, including the microreplication technology that is the backbone of some of the latest transdermal solutions currently in development.

“There was a great sense of our common goal to further drug delivery for the benefit of patients all over the world,” said Kirsty Gapp, global business manager, MTS. “The reason that we have partnered with the Catalent Institute is that we want to share our knowledge of transdermal and microneedle delivery with their community, and be part of a scientific group working to improve drug delivery technologies. It was an excellent opportunity to bring everyone together to talk about novel and groundbreaking drug delivery platforms.”