While RDD 2021, like RDD 2020, was moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the format for this year’s meeting differed from last year’s in that it included live content in addition to prerecorded presentations. Unlike last year, organizers RDD Online and Aptar Pharma had the benefit of experience running a virtual meeting and time to plan. In addition, in the year following the 2020 meeting, most participants have become familiar with video conferencing platforms like Zoom. Rather than taking time for presentations of material that could just as well be viewed on demand, the organizers used live sessions to present “Explore with Experts” panel discussions and allow delegates to ask questions, a strategy that generated a good deal of engagement.
The live sessions included panels for each of the meeting’s “knowledge spaces,” with discussions on topics including COVID-19’s effects on aerosol drug research; whether the transition to HFA 152a as an MDI propellant would be as difficult as the previous propellant transition; considerations for dry powder formulation of biologics, and variability in intranasal delivery. Some of the sessions attracted well over 100 attendees, including the Conversations with Workshop Presenters session, where participants were able to go into breakout rooms to ask questions of presenters.
In addition to panel discussions with presenters the various knowledge spaces, the live content also included a question and answer session with the authors of posters selected for the annual Posters on the Podium session: Sneha Dhapare of the FDA; Arun Kolanjiyil of Virginia Commonwealth University; Mani Ordoubadi of the University of Alberta; Shruti Sawant of St. John’s University; Harry Scott of Monash University; and Tian Wu of Amgen. Following the Q&A, moderator Mike Hindle of VCU introduced Pete Byron to announce the winner of his namesake award, The VCU RDD Peter R. Byron Graduate Student Award. Byron announced that Sawant was the winner of the 2021 “Pete” for her poster on “Formulation Development Of Inhalable Osimertinib Liposomes For The Treatment Of Non–small Cell Lung Cancer” and that she would receive a certificate and a check for $1,000.
COVID-19 and other lung diseases
The first panel, which drew more than 130 attendees, featured keynote speaker Gisli Jenkins of the National Heart & Lung Institute at Imperial College London, Jan de Backer, CEO of functional respiratory imaging (FRI) company Fluidda, and Marilyn Glassberg of the University of Arizona. In his preliminary remarks, Richard Dalby of RDD Online welcomed the more than 350 delegates from 28 countries who registered for RDD 2021 before turning moderation of the panel over to Geraldine Venthoye of Vectura. She posed a series of questions about how the COVID-19 pandemic might affect the industry in the future, suggesting that “adversity created the impetus for innovation” over the past year and wondering whether the pandemic might lead to more patients with pulmonary disease, new drug targets, faster development, and increased funding aimed at treatments for respiratory diseases.
