The EU-funded InPharma project is working towards making drug development more predictable and reducing animal testing in drug development by using a fully integrated, animal-free, end-to-end modelling approach to the formulation of drugs for oral administration.

InPharma is the first European Industrial Doctorate (EID) that aims at eliminating animals from the development of oral drug formulations by substituting them with computational and bio-predictive in vitro tools. InPharma will apply an ‘end-to-end’ model-based drug development approach, by linking data emerging from drug discovery into computational models that predict the optimal formulation design, which is then integrated into models that predict drug levels in simulated human clinical trials. This end-to-end model-based approach is essential to advance innovation and competitiveness of Pharmaceutical R&D in Europe, and at the same time support the European Commission’s goal of animal-free testing.

The pharmaceutical industry is still lacking personnel trained in novel computational and laboratory-based technologies for oral drug formulation. InPharma will bridge this qualification gap by training doctoral students (early-stage researchers, ESRs) in computational pharmaceutics, innovative lab-based predictive tools and physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling. In total, 13 ESRs have been recruited to work on individual projects as part of the InPharma network supported by experts in the field of oral drug development.

The InPharma project brings together the complementary expertise of six multi-national pharmaceutical companies, five world-class academic research institutions and eight partner organisations to ensure the best research and training conditions for each individual to reach the overall project goals. The ESRs have the opportunity to start their research careers in a truly intersectoral environment and each ESR will experience life as a researcher at an innovative pharmaceutical company and at one of the leading research institutions in Europe. The local PhD programmes will be complemented by network-wide training events designed to prepare the ESRs to become highly successful researchers in the pharmaceutical industry.

We hope that this final meeting will be a rewarding experience for all those attending the meeting and a kick-start in a successful career for the ESRs.

Welcome to the InPharma Annual Meeting 2024,

InPharma Annual Meeting Organising Committee