Conference Reports
The 46th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
San Francisco, USA, 27th-30th September 2006
Only a few weeks after providing the setting for the 232nd ACS conference, San Francisco's Moscone Conference Centre was once again filled with conference delegates, scientists and press for the 46th ICAAC. Over 10,000 people attended this conference, their best numbers since the 9/11 tragedy.
The meeting consisted of focus sessions, keynote and meet-the-expert sessions , symposiums, literature reviews, slide and poster sessions. A highlight of the event was Sanofi-Aventis' award lecture, "Design and Development of New Antiviral Drug Leads and Therapeutic Concepts", and the expanse of research to be exchanged was evident throughout; satellite symposia started as early as 7:30am, while the evening symposia often went on until 9pm.
The meeting's focus was primarily on treatments to tackle the rising number of resistant bacterial strains such as MRSA, MSSA, and VISA. A great deal of new treatments discussed were combination formulations of existing drugs; however novel drugs were also prominent in this category; DC-159a is an orally-active quinolone under development by Daiichi Pharmaceuticals. It is currently in preclinical development, and has shown potential in acting on a wide variety of bacterial strains. A candidate with high expectations, a whole poster session was dedicated to DC-159a and it was highlighted in the Poster Summary session and in the Press briefing.
Another drug brought to attention was HCV-796, which is under development by Wyeth and ViroPharma for Hepatitis C. Its promise is clear from the speed at which it has traversed through trials - it was in preclinical trials when the abstracts were submitted to the conference and has since leaped to Phase II.
There were also sessions on the mechanisms of drug resistance, new developments in HIV treatments since the 16th International AIDS conference, and a focus on organism-specific infections, such as community acquired pneumonia, or on specific areas such as urinary infections.
The symposium on "Addressing the Challenge of Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Infections" disclosed many new compounds in various stages of development, with the sub-section by Jeff Edwards, an independent consultant, on "Why It's Difficult to Identify New Antimicrobial Agents" proving to be of particular interest. In a well delivered speech that balanced the factual with the humorous, it was the visual slides that generated the most attention, particularly the Star Wars effect that was used for one part, with the writing travelling away from the viewer into the void of space.
The most frequently contaminated areas were door handles and pens, with light switches, television remote controls, taps and telephones also subjected to the germs. A second trial took place to see how easy it was to re-infect from these contaminated sources, with a 47% success rate.
In addition to these organised sessions, many of the larger pharmaceutical companies and various publishers had exhibits in the large hall to break up the poster sessions a little.
This year's ICAAC was a rousing success, with many visitors, exhibits and sessions of interest. With the wide range of areas are covered, it seems that ICAAC is one of the biggest events in conference calendars, and will further the research into much needed pharmaceuticals.
The 47th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy will be held in Boston on 17th-20th September 2007.
Rebecca Bridge
Pharmaprojects Analyst
