Invitation to the PAT Conference 2007

Dear Madam, dear Sir,

After two successful PAT Conferences held in 2005 and 2006, we would like to invite you to the third International PAT Conference organised by the University of Heidelberg.

The conference is intended to provide an update on how PAT can be applied in today's pharmaceutical development and manufacture.

The primary goal of PAT is to identify and control quality and performance attributes of raw and in-process materials and processes to improve process understanding and ensure consistent quality of the final product. Macro and micro scale spectroscopic techniques in combination with multivariate data analysis are powerful methods within the PAT toolbox. Selection of a specific PAT tool requires a thorough understanding of the potential and relative advantages of the different methodologies.
This year's conference programme will review the current status of PAT and focus on the "Desired State" with a more holistic view on spectroscopic techniques.
Experts from the pharmaceutical industry, regulatory authorities and international academia will present topics such as

• FDA's perspectives of the "Desired State"
• Case study of a European PAT submission
• Pros and cons of NIR, IR, Raman and THz spectroscopy
• Sampling strategy and its role in risk management
• Advantages and challenges of imaging techniques
• Multivariate data analysis
• PAT applications in biotechnology.

It is the aim of this extraordinary event to be a platform for interesting discussions. Here you can meet representatives from regulatory authorities as well as colleagues from the industry.

It would be a great pleasure for me to welcome you in Heidelberg on behalf of the Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology.

Dr Gabriele Reich
IPMB, University of Heidelberg