AAPS and the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) will again collaborate at the 2026 PharmSci 360 conference, scheduled for October 25-28 in New Orleans at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. USP has had a presence at recent meetings, including exhibit-hall stage sessions in 2025 and a talk on excipient and raw material grades in 2023. This year expands that footprint into a two-and-a-half-day workshop.
The workshop runs October 26 to 28 inside the exhibit hall, covering complex generics, excipient quality, inhalation standards and novel excipients. AAPS says the sessions will address compendial standards, the quality specifications USP publishes in the USP–NF and that FDA can enforce under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Speakers have not been announced. USP is also exhibiting at booth 2931 and presenting a special poster collection.
USP staff already hold roles across the main scientific program, mostly as moderators rather than presenters. Diane McCarthy, Ph.D., vice president of global biologics at USP, will speak Monday on what public standards should do next for biologics development. Allison Radwick, Ph.D., senior regulatory and policy communications manager at USP, moderates that symposium, which also features Anurag Rathore, Ph.D., of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi on whether next-generation platforms can produce monoclonal antibodies at $10 per gram; Tongzhou Liu, Ph.D., of AbbVie’s product development science and technology group on formulation choices in commercial manufacturing; and Luis Brito, Ph.D., of Moderna on lipid nanoparticles. Ravi Kiran Kaja, Ph.D., a senior principal scientist at USP, moderates two keynotes: Alan Watts, Ph.D., of Catalent on the scale-up of Inbrija, and Shawn Zhang, Ph.D., of digiM Solution on microstructure-based predictive development.
“USP and AAPS are aligned in our shared mission to help industry and regulators address evolving challenges in pharmaceutical quality,” Catherine Sheehan, senior director of growth programs for excipients and foods at USP, said in a statement. “This workshop will bring together a range of stakeholder perspectives to foster innovation, strengthen regulatory confidence, and ultimately help increase the availability of quality medicines for the patients who need them.”
The 2026 PharmSci 360 conference program spans topics across the development pipeline, including preclinical, clinical and translational sciences; formulation and delivery; manufacturing and analytical characterization and bioanalytics.
Filed Under: PharmSci360
