Hello everyone.
Welcome to the 2023 APN Annual Symposium. We are delighted to have you here. This symposium marks the fifth since the inaugural event held in 2019, and we extend our heartfelt gratitude to all of you who have supported the symposium's growth over the years.
As the Chair of APN, I have consistently emphasized our organization's primary mission in every symposium's opening address since our inaugural event. As you are aware, this mission is to promote the advancement and expansion of pharmacometrics in the Asian region while fostering networking opportunities.
Despite the challenges faced by emerging organizations, APN has consistently invited speakers from over ten countries each year, starting with our inaugural conference. As the Chair, I take great pride in our efforts over the years, and this year, we continued this tradition by inviting 15 speakers from more than ten countries.
I am very pleased to see that, through the participation of speakers from various Asian countries, the APN Symposium is increasingly establishing itself as a well-deserved pan-Asian conference in the field of pharmacometrics.
This year, following the end of the COVID pandemic, we had initially planned to host the symposium in an offline format. However, due to a proposal from our host country, Japan, this year's event will take place online, and we plan to return to an offline format in Japan next year.
We extend our gratitude to all those who have been involved in preparing for this event, including the APN board members. A special thanks to the members of the Japanese organizing committee, including Professor Yasuhiro Tsuji and Dr. Atsunori Kaibara, for their invaluable contributions.
Furthermore, this year, in collaboration with Professor Surulivelrajan Mallayasamy from Manipal College in India, I co-developed a graduate-level course titled "Special Lectures in Pharmacometrics." This course ran from March to June, spanning 16 weeks, with 3 hours of real-time lectures every Thursday afternoon.
A total of 26 students enrolled in the course, with 21 instructors participating, including 14 from Asia. This collective effort allowed us to fulfill APN's second mission, which is "To provide training opportunities to future pharmacometricians."
APN will continue to develop such educational programs in the future to contribute to the training of future pharmacometricians in the Asian region.
In conclusion, we hope that this symposium has been both informative and enjoyable for all of you who attended. We sincerely ask for your ongoing support and commitment to APN in the future.
Thank you.
APN Chair
Kyungsoo Park