Welcome to our podcast on the Director's Notes in under ten minutes for the fifteenth annual POD Partnership Opportunities and Drug Delivery Conference, which takes place October twenty seventh and twenty eighth in Boston. Valerie Boling, I'm the executive director of the conference Forum, and I am delighted to be joined by my colleague Andrew Goldstein, who is the senior producer for the POD conference.
And Hello Andrew, and welcome, Hi, Valerie. Happy to be here.
Andrew. We're going to give highlights on what to expect for the twenty twenty five conference. It is our fifteenth annual. It's a celebration year, and we've seen so much over those years. My goodness, and as always, we're so honored to present this program with MIT's doctor Robert Langer, who always gives an excellent keynote, and there's nobody like doctor Langer, and it's always such a pleasure to have him, Andrew. As you know, POD is a strategic level program. We
don't consider it a trade show. Although we have a really interesting wide array of drug delivery companies for folks to meet. There's so much partnering. It is a Partnering program, and we do a lot of work to balance the strategic level, high level content that we don't think you really can get anywhere else because we have the advantage of being an industry research firm where we can draw on five areas of research that we cover here at the conference form we can bring that to the POD program.
So that's part of its uniqueness. But we do have about a thousand people now. So with that, Andrew, you have been interviewing and researching with many, many pharma and drug delivery companies. So based on your research, tell us what the hot themes are.
Definitely, thank you, Valerie. So the POD conference has a huge history reporting on cutting edge scientific trends and pharma needs and drug delivery business deals and really everything in the drug delivery space. This year, specifically, there's been an
increased focus on deal making and partnerships. I know that might seem obvious for POD Partnership Conference, but there has been an uptick in deals and so hearing on what companies are interested in, how these deals work, what goes into it from a scientific level, from a business level, what the process looks like in terms of the scientific topics. Lots of interest in delivering different therapeutics using different modalities,
selling gene and biologics delivery. The GLP one and other incretin drugs have been coming up quite a lot, and increased focus in combination device development, manufacturing and sustainability and delivering high volume, high concentration therapeutics, as well as integrating digital health and connected devices Andrew.
As you know, the POD conference has these classic sections that people really love. For example, like an entire afternoon on just the drug delivery presentations across modalities. So can you give us a quick rundown on how it is organized and you can go through the sections that people can expect.
Definitely on the first and second days of the program, we do have industry overviews from Roche and then from Pharma Circle, just a year interview. What are the hot topics, what are the deals being made, what are the trends we're seeing in drug delivery. We also, this year, as we have every year, the annual Company Spotlights, where pharma companies will present on the technologies that they're interested in
and their partnership philosophies. This year, Nevardis and AVY are signed on to speak about what they're looking for and what they're interested in. And in addition to that, we do have a panel on partnering and what that looks like, how to do, what that process is, as well as a fireside conversation about that as well. On the first day of the program in the afternoon. We often call this the crown jewel of the POD conference, we have
the drug delivery technology presentations. This year we have tracks on injectible formulations and technologies, oral mucosal transderble and other non injectible technologies, novel devices, self injectibles, where robles and connective devices, selling gene delivery, excipient innovation, novel device technologies, novel injectable and non injectible technologies, sell gene and novel biologics, delivery and self injection devices, syringes, primary containers, and packaging solutions,
and so within these tracks, companies will present on new data, what they're working on, their technologies, mechanisms of action, and what they're looking for in terms of partnerships with pharma. And within this area, I think we dedicate generally twenty percent of the time specifically for emerging companies, so we are getting both regulars and also new companies coming back every year.
Nice.
In addition to that, on the second day of the program, we have our annual pod Soapbox, where really young innovative drug delivery companies give very quick presentations on what they're working on, and then usually when they finish, we have lunch and people could come over and speak to those companies as well.
Nice. Nice. So we've got keynotes, panel discussions, We've got our company spotlights talking about their partnering philosophies and what they look for in drug delivery. We've got the afternoon tracks as you just described, and we have other breakout choices. We have the Soapbox. Anyhow, there are other highlights I know, so tell us more about those definitely.
So I'd love to talk about the keynotes this year, as every year, we have doctor Robert Langer from MIT, and he's going to be speaking about the state of innovation in drug delivery industry. This year, we're proud to welcome doctor Latabierre Nudsen, Novo Nordisk's chief scientific advisor, who drove the development of GLP drugs for obesity, and she's going to present on the lyric glue tide and sema
glue tide story. Her approach to scientific development and where drug delivery intersects with her R.
And D work.
We also have a patient keynote this year, Jamie Oligiri, who will share his he as a patient with sickle cell disease before and after receiving CASKEV, which is a crisper based therapy for sickle cell disease, and his mission to make these therapies more accessible for patients globally. Additionally, we have a Zeitgeist presenter in doctor Mensor Emigi, who
is a University Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University. He's going to speak on endogenoust targeted delivery, different strategies to overcome biological barriers and improve efficacy and safety.
And to add to this wonderful list of keynotes, I am absolutely delighted that we have for the first time at POD doctor George Young Coppolis, who of course is the co founder of Regeneron, and not only is he a great innovative thinker and doer, but he's just an excellent leader in this space. So just really delighted that doctor Young Coppolis will be joining doctor Robert Langer on the stage.
Also returning this year to the POD conference. I think it's the fourth time we have a panel from haayers sharing their perspectives on drug delivery. This year, they're going to cover the pharmacoeconomics of drug delivery, enable drug products demonstrating value to the patient and system versus just a pricing comparison to products already on the market, Pressures on drug pricing and leveraging health economics, as well as trends in coverage and pricing for incretins and nucleic acid drugs.
Wow, Okay, that's a lot, Andrew fantastic. So are there any other highlights you want to bring forward to us?
Definitely. So on the second day of the program, after lunch, we're going to have our panel tracks, and so this year we've split it up into four tracks. The first track is Novel Formulations, where we'll speak about novel vehicles to deliver genetic medicines, tissue specific targeting for nucleic acid therapies ADCs, and other approaches for drug conjugation and bioconjugation, oral delivery of biologics and peptides, and sustained release and
long acting delivery. Then we'll have a track on novel delivery modalities where we'll talk about brain delivery, transdermal delivery, vaccines,
ophthalmic delivery, and then respiratory devices and inhale biologics. We will have a combination device track that will speak on platform approaches to develop combination product developing, a global regulatory framework, preparing for manufacturing, scale up for commercialization or clinic sustainability throughout the process, and then using AI in combination product development.
And lastly, a novel Drug delivery and Device technologies track where we'll discuss transitioning from IV to SubQ and how that impacts workflow and patients, Dual chamber injectibles and advances in that area, Digital tech for improving patient experience and preparing the supply chain delivering hyper concentrated formulations, and then also large volume delivery. Nice Valarie, if I can ask you a question, I'd love to get your thoughts on the networking opportunities at the conference.
Yeah. No, it's really important that we have very intentionally prepared tools and support for people to partner because that's what it's all about, right. So we've got companies who have an array of different drug delivery solutions or possibilities, and we have an array of pharm and biotech companies who are looking for those solutions. So it's really important. And I've always noticed that with the POD conference that
people come very organized, they're very intentional. They're there to really meet people and talk about the science and the challenges that they're having. So you see that it's always just packed. The partnering like all of the partnering tables, and we make sure that we have our folks on the ground to make sure that there's never not a table available for people. We take the partnering very seriously
and we have different sections where people can partner. We're going to have a new partnering tool, which I'm very excited about. If somebody can't reach somebody, we have staff on site, a dedicated partnering desk to help people bind
the people that they're looking for. So partnering is huge. Again, the tool, the tables, and the on site support have the morning breaks, the afternoon breaks, and we also have an annual reception for people to network and for people to meet those exhibitors, and of course a lot of
partnering does happen at the exhibit tables. You know, our exhibitors are always so incredibly organized and the room is always just so full, and so, you know, so you see the partnering at the tables, but you also see it at the exhibit tables as well. So I hope that you know, it gives everyone a sense of the
kind of networking that we have. It's very intentional, it's well organized, but we also balance it with just hey, I just want to get a drink at the reception and just talk to people without having to have a partnering planned meeting. That's okay too. So with that, where can people go to get more information?
Thank you Alleri. So people can go to podconference dot com that's Pod with two d's to learn more about the conference. You can see the agenda, the speaking faculty, the exhibiting companies and other sponsoring companies and learn more about the conference. And in addition to that, we cover the drug delivery market throughout the year through editorials, podcasts, and webcasts and you can see all of that at drug Dashdelivery dot org.
All right, excellent, Andrew, thank you so much, and thanks everyone.
Thank you. Valerie