APN

The Asian Pharmacometrics Network (APN) has been established to enhance regional development and networking opportunities in pharmacometrics and to provide training opportunities to future pharmacometricians across Asia.

The establishment of the Asian Network in Pharmacometrics dates back to September 2012 when the first World Conference on Pharmacometrics (WCoP) was held in Seoul, Korea. During the period of WCoP in 2012 (WCoP2012), the members of the WCoP2012 regional Advisory Committee (AC) (Atsunori Kaibara for Japan, Feng Guo for China, Chun-Jung Lin for Taiwan, Lai-San Tham for Singapore, Surulivel Rajan for India and Kyungsoo Park for Korea) initiated a discussion on how to develop and promote pharmacometrics in the Asian region. This marked the beginning of the creation of the Asian Network in Pharmacometrics.

In December 2014, Kyungsoo Park was elected as the first ISoP board member representing the Asian region, and ISoP’s inviting him to be a board member was part of its mission to extend its role in promoting pharmacometrics to the Asian region. Motivated by this, in 2015 the AC members resumed the discussion they initiated during WCoP2012 on developing and promoting pharmacometrics in the Asian region. In doing so, two Southeast Asian countries, namely, Thailand and Malaysia, joined the AC, resulting in the number of AC members increased from 6 to 8, and the AC was renamed the Asian Pharmacometrics Network (APN).

Later in January 2017, as Vietnam joined the APN, the number of APN member countries increased from 8 to 9, and the representatives of each country formed the inaugural APN board. Then, after the 1st APN symposium in 2019, five new representatives from Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia joined the APN board, and in 2021, Pakistan joined the APN in January and Brunei in November, expanding the number of APN member countries up to 16.