DIA Opts for Paris in the Springtime

Ella Fitzgerald always loved Paris in the springtime, and the Drug Information Association (DIA) is now hoping the French capital will prove to be an irresistible lure for the pharmaceutical industry. For the 27th DIA Annual EuroMeeting, organizers have switched the event from its usual late March slot to mid-April in 2015. 

The congress will look at some of the major challenges facing global health today, including the need to come together to drive innovation. The opportunity of the Innovative Medicines Initiatives (IMI) and other public-private partnerships are formative mechanisms that must be maximized in Europe and other regions, program chairs note. 

Discussion at the meeting will concentrate on how early and harmonized regulatory dialogue is necessary to ensure clinical development that is more efficient and will accelerate access to novel therapies for patients. The role of the European Union's new clinical trials legislation will come under scrutiny in the meeting's opening track on access to innovative treatments. 

Another track will look at special development pathways in pediatrics, the elderly, and in pregnancy. Nearly 10 years after the adoption of the Paediatric Regulation, substantial experience has been gained, yet science continues to evolve in this area and raises new questions to be answered in the future. At the same time, the need for global convergence has become evident in several areas. Also, the speed of traditional development concepts is slower than the speed of ageing in European society, according to the theme leaders.

Further parallel sessions will focus on innovation in vaccine development, medical devices, and combination products, novel treatments for rare diseases, availability of medicinal products/drug shortages, pharmacovigilance, big data, and mobile health, among other areas.

Paris has a rich history of medical innovation. Local scientists and clinicians have changed modern medicine through the discovery of instruments such as the stethoscope and hypodermic needle, treatments like antibiotics or antipsychotics, vaccines against tuberculosis and rabies, and the discovery of diseases such as HIV.

-Philip Ward