The northeast regional SPS meeting update: Safety pharmacology innovations and applications

The Safety Pharmacology Society (SPS) held a Northeast (NE) regional meeting in Boston, MA on May 13, 2016 at the Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated site. There were 103 attendees from the pharmaceutical industry, contract research organizations (CROs), academia, and global regulatory agencies. An assortment of scientific topics were presented by 7 speakers that included broad topics in the cardiovascular (organ on chip, statistical power and translation of rat cardiovascular telemetry data and dual inhibition of IKr and IKs on QT interval prolongation) and central nervous system (in vitro platform for neurotoxicity, an integrated risk assessment of suicidal ideation and behavior, and EEG advances in safety pharmacology) and a novel topic discussing preclinical challenges faced in the development of a novel gene therapy. A highlight of the meeting was an in-depth discussion on the fatty acid acyl hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitor BIA 10-2474 which involved a comprehensive overview of the biology and pharmacology of FAAH followed by a presentation from the Biotrial (Rennes, France) team that conducted the clinical trial. An additional poster session was held that included 13 fascinating posters on cutting edge safety pharmacology topics.