Editorial, IAPC-6 Meeting

It is with our great pleasure to announce this topical issue of Pharmaceutical Research devoted to the IAPC-6 meeting held in Zagreb, Croatia, September 4–7, 2017. The meeting was organized by the International Association of Physical Chemists, non-profit organization, with the goal to establish contacts, interactions among scientists of different profiles and to strengthen the cooperation between researchers from academia and industry. These goals go fully along with the missions of the Society which include global innovation and partnership in order to advance science and spread knowledge.

The IAPC meetings started as a series of the biennial conferences on physico-chemical methods in drug discovery and development. The first conference took place in Rovinj, Croatia, 2009, but soon it acquired a widespread interest among pharmaceutical science community usually gathering more than 100 scientists from different parts of the world. However, its global importance the conference gained after ever increasing need to widen its geographical footprint. The scientific committee decided to switch the schedule of the Meetings from biennial to annual taking place in the alternating Eastern Asia/European locations. As a result IAPC-5 conference in Zhuhai, China, August 2016, IAPC-6 conference in Zagreb, Croatia, September 2017 (Fig. 1) and IAPC-7 conference, Osaka, Japan were organized.

Fig. 1

Opening session of IAPC-6 meeting.

IAPC-6 conference in Zagreb achieved a great success both from the scientific and social points of view. The scientific program was well balanced consisting of six sessions: Drug Development, Solid State, Pharmaceutical Cocrystals, PhysChem and Permeability, ADMET and DMPK and Drug Discovery. The conference attended about 150 participants from more than 30 countries. Special evening session, “Pharmaceutical Cocrystals – Physicochemical Properties and Formulations”, was organized and moderated by Alex Avdeef. The session highlighted issues related to the measurement of physicochemical properties, particularly dissolution and solubility as a function of pH, in support of formulation development of oral drug products with improved bioavailability.

In this special issue of Pharmaceutical Research a collection of five papers were published, four of which were in the areas of preformulation study, including formulation design (Parikh & Serajuddin, Cetina-Cizmek et al...), characterization (Grassi et al) and modelling (Avdeef). The last paper reported a computational approach to model PK and biological effects of steroids in humans.

Three-day intensive course “3^rd International Summer School on Drug Development” accompanied the conference as a pre-event which was organized in the facilities of PLIVA d.o.o., Croatian pharmaceutical company. The aim of the course was to provide relaxed but stimulating environment for students and other participants in order to broaden their knowledge and advance in the career (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2

Alex Avdeef giving a lecture at the 3rd international summer school on drug development.