Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 4 Heydon Road, Great Chishill, Royston, Herts SG8 8SR, UK
Mine Orlu
Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, University College London, 29-39 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AX, UK
Alpana Mair
Effective Prescribing and Therapeutics, Health and Social Care Directorate, Scottish Government, Edinburgh EH6 5NL, Scotland, UK
Sven Stegemann
Institute of Process and Particle Engineering, Graz University of Technology, Inffeldgasse 13, 8010 Graz, Austria
Diana van Riet-Nales
Medicines Evaluation Board in the Netherlands, Quality Department, Chemical Pharmaceutical Assessments, P.O. Box 8275, 3503 RG Utrecht, The Netherlands
A meeting organised by the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences focussed on the challenges of developing medicines for older adults. International experts discussed the complexity introduced by polypharmacy and multiple morbidities and how the risk–benefit ratio of a medicine changes as an individual ages. The way in which regulatory authorities are encouraging the development of age-appropriate medicines was highlighted. Examples were provided of the difficulties faced by the older population with some medicinal products and suggestions given as to how the pharmaceutical scientist can build the requirements of the older population into their development of new medicines, as well as improvements to existing ones.
