Exclusive interview with Optceutics Ltd speaker released for Ophthalmic Drugs Conference 2019
SMi Group Reports: CSO of Optceutics Ltd to present at SMi’s Ophthalmic Drugs conference commencing on 18th– 20th November 2019, in London
The Ophthalmic Drugs conference will take place on the 18th– 20th November 2019 in London. The event aims to explore new discoveries in the treatment of ocular rare disease, innovations in gene therapy, the challenges in drug delivery through a complex barrier, patient comfort, and regulatory compliance which make up such core components within the Ophthalmic Drug sphere.
With only 6 weeks until the conference, SMi caught up with the CSO of Optceutics Ltd, Sahar Awwad as a speaker for Europe’s leading Ophthalmic Drugs conference. Sahar is also a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in UCL School of Pharmacy, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). Dr Awwad has more than 10 years’ experience in biologics and small molecule drug development and delivery, ocular drug delivery and pharmaceutical technology. Dr Awwad drives translational pharmaceutics research in affinity-based drug delivery, novel formulation strategies to extend drug release and modelling ocular pharmacokinetics.
Dr. Awwad will present on ‘The need of an in vitro ocular model for preclinical testing of intraocular formulations’ focussing on:
- The need for longer acting formulations
- Challenges during preclinical development-use of animal models, lack of models in the pharmacopeia and biopharmaceutical formulation challenges
- Development and capabilities of the PK-Eye with a few case studies
Excerpt of Sahar’s interview:
The ophthalmic drugs market has matured greatly over recent years, what are the key significant developments you have noticed over the past year?
“My work focuses on developing long acting methodologies to deliver drugs to the back of the eye. In terms of retinal diseases, antibody-based medicines have transformed the treatment of blinding disease such as AMD in the last 2 decades. Prolonging the duration of action is a critical, the unmet healthcare challenge is to reduce the frequency of injections. There are no clinically licensed implantable, long acting formulations for therapeutic proteins or anti-VEGFs…”
What do you personally see as the greatest challenge to overcome in the field of Ophthalmic Drugs at the moment?
“One of the greatest challenges to overcome is the development of long acting medicines to reduce the frequency of injections into the eye. During preclinical testing, industries heavily rely on animal models for optimisation and screening…”
For the full speaker interview, speaker line-up, as well as the latest brochure and past attendees, go to the download at www.ophthalmicdrugs.com/pharmajournalist7
A Focus Day Highlight Session led by Jinzhong Zhang, Vice President at Graybug Vision will discuss sustained drug release for managing ocular hypertension and glaucoma including:
- Long-lasting therapeutics that effectively lower and maintain IOP remain a substantial unmet medical need
- Available ocular drug delivery platforms
- Choice of administration routes: intracameral, subconjunctival or intravitreal injection
- An injectable formulation of a beta-adrenergic antagonist prodrug for sustained reduction of intraocular pressure
With only 6 weeks remaining, places are highly limited. Interested parties are urged to secure their place at www.ophthalmicdrugs.com/pharmajournalist7
Ophthalmic Drugs Conference
18th – 20th November 2019
Copthorne Tara Hotel, London, UK
Proudly sponsored by:
EXPERIMENTICA | ProMed Pharma
Contacts:
Sponsorship, exhibition and branding packages: Alia Malick +44 (0)20 7827 6168 / amalick@smi-online.co.uk
Media enquiries contact Neill Howard +44 (0) 207 827 6164 / nhoward@smi-online.co.uk
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About SMi Group:
Established since 1993, the SMi Group is a global event-production company that specializes in Business-to-Business Conferences, Workshops, Masterclasses and online Communities. We create and deliver events in the Defence, Security, Energy, Utilities, Finance and Pharmaceutical industries. We pride ourselves on having access to the world’s most forward-thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network. More information can be found at http://www.smi-online.co.uk