Pharma, Pharmaceutics and Biotechnology Conference

Pharmacology the science studying the interactions of drugs with biological systems, provides the powerful cornerstone for the development of innovative treatments for infectious diseases. Drug design enhances this by focusing on compounds designed to selectively inhibit disease-causing pathogens and complements pharmacology as such to provide the framework for therapy discovery and optimization with minimal side effects.

In infectious diseases, drug designing starts by understanding the biology of pathogens, whether it be bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites, and figuring out key molecular targets critical for survival or replication. Rational drug design is a very powerful approach, where researchers create drugs that precisely interact with these targets and inhibit their function, thus neutralizing the pathogen. Advancements in computational biology and machine learning further accelerate this process, enabling million compounds for very rapid screening and prediction of pharmacological properties.

Pharmacology ensures that once a drug is designed it can be adequately absorbed and well-distributed, metabolized, and excreted by the body (pharmacokinetics), while producing the optimal therapeutic effect at a molecular level (pharmacodynamics).

The power for this balance between potency and safety arises in infectious diseases where overdose or under dose induces a probable treatment failure or progression of drug resistance. In this session, the synergies between pharmacology and drug design will be explored, illustrating important steps in antimicrobial agent development.

Topics to include identification of target, optimization of lead compound, and role of PK/PD models in determining effectiveness or predicting efficacy of a drug.

The session will point out how modern techniques in drug design really do change the face of treatment of infections by the advent of the next generation of therapeutics that are safer, more effective, and resistant overcoming.