Welcome to the Biopharmaceutics Focus Group
Biopharmaceutics can be defined as the study of how the physicochemical properties of a drug, the dosage form and the route of administration affect the rate and extent of drug absorption. Effective biopharmaceutical characterisation of new chemical entities is a key factor throughout drug development. Biopharmaceutical properties help to guide formulation design and choice of delivery system, however profiling dosage form performance under conditions which are relevant to in vivo conditions remains a challenge to pharmaceutical scientists. The Biopharmaceutics Focus Group was established within APS in 1999 to provide a forum for discussion of such challenges and to promote awareness of this discipline within Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Who We Are
The Focus Group steering committee has representation from industrial scientists in a number of large pharma companies including Pfizer, GSK, AstraZeneca, academics from King’s College London, UCL School of Pharmacy, University of Bath, Huddersfield, De Montfort and Birmingham Universities and specialist technology companies including Quotient, SEDA, PSe and Simcyp. A number of focus group members are participants in the Innovative Medicines Initiative funded ‘OrBiTo’ project which is seeking to develop the next-generation of innovative tools for oral biopharmaceutics.
The Focus Group will promote scientific education and training in the field of biopharmaceutics to meet the needs of scientists working in both industrial and academic sectors. The Focus Group will provide an active community of practice for those interested in the science of oral drug absorption and through this network seek to develop opportunities for cross-sector pre-competitive collaboration. The Focus Group will contribute to the scientific programme for the annual APS PharmSci meeting and organise additional symposia to promote awareness of innovative approaches for oral drug delivery and biopharmaceutics.
What We Do
We’ve run many successful symposia over the years but one of our meetings (November 2017) on the challenges with developing clinically relevant specifications for oral drug products stands out for me. This meeting brought together the many strands of the biopharmaceutics discipline and provided a forum to discuss how our science could be implemented in a regulatory context. The involvement of FG steering committee members in the early planning phase of the OrBiTo programme also enabled this collaborative project to get off the ground quickly. OrBiTo is at the top of my list as an example of how we’ve worked together to advance our understanding of the gastrointestinal tract and develop the next generation of predictive tools for oral absorption.
Basic Biopharmaceutics Workshop – June 2023
The Biopharmaceutics Focus Group hosted a workshop in June 2023 in London. The aim of the event was to provide the attendees with the core theoretical principles and the application of biopharmaceutics for the development of oral drug products, which were delivered by a mix of industrial and academic experts in oral biopharmaceutics. There were around 50 attendees at the event with many opportunities for the participants to network during the day. The talks involved different biopharmaceutics topics, where the speakers discussed the basic concepts, state of the art, current gaps and future challenges. See full story here.
Basic Biopharmaceutics Workshop – June 2019
Develop your knowledge on core theoretical principles and the application of biopharmaceutics to aid progression of oral drug development projects. A unique opportunity of a one-day workshop focused on oral biopharmaceutics and the science of oral absorption delivered by a mix of industrial and academic experts with many years of experience.
17th-18th September 2018 – Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) ORBITO project – AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK
“5 Years of progress in Oral Biopharmaceutics– IMI OrBiTo project and global biopharmaceutics research”
The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) OrBiTo project is a pre-competitive collaboration between pharma, academia and specialist technology companies which aims to enhance our understanding of how orally-administered drugs are absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and apply this knowledge to develop new in vitro tests and in silico models that will better predict the performance of oral formulations in patients.
To build links with special interest groups in kindred organisations and contribute to the development of the global biopharmaceutics community.
Hot Scientific Topics
Identified by each Focus Group to make a significant contribution to pharmaceutical science in developing medicines.
We compiled our list of hot topics back in 2016 but they remain current today:
- Developing an understanding of the critical biopharmaceutics attributes of molecules with beyond ‘rule of 5’ physicochemical properties.
- Understanding the factors determining oral absorption and their impact on overall clinical variability – defining opportunities for pre-competitive collaboration post-IMI OrBiTo.
- Integrating in vitro and in silico tools to improve the prediction of oral formulation performance.
Meet the Group
Focus Group Members
