The 3^rd ICDDT was held from February 7-10, 2011 at Dubai Women's College, UAE. The third conference was a much larger event with talks delivered over 35 thematic sessions with poster presentations and an associated commercial exhibition. The 3rd International Conference on Drug Discovery and Therapy provided renowned scientists the opportunity to present their cutting edge researches in the field of drug development and therapy. It warmly welcomed an esteemed congregation of a number of Nobel Laureates and leading researchers to Dubai to share their explorations with the scientific community. The Nobel Laureates who honored the event with their prestigious presence were: Prof. Dr. Warner Arber (USA), Prof. Dr. Robert Huber, (Germany), Prof. Dr. Jean-Marie Lehn (France), Prof. Dr. Ferid Murad, (USA), Prof. Dr. Erwin Neher, (Germany).

The honorable Fellows of Royal Society (FRS) attended this event were: Prof. Sir Alen Roy Fersht, Prof. Goverdhan Mehta, Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman.

This conference provided a platform to more than 600 pharmaceutical scientists, doctors and clinical researchers to elucidate upon the latest discoveries and researches in their respective fields. The conference agenda span over 205 lectures accompanied by 234 poster presentations catering to 35 major drug discovery disciplines.

The grand inaugural ceremony marked the commencement of this august event on 7th February 2011. Once again His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mubarak Al Nahayan delivered his address highlighting the importance of education and significance of latest research advances in the field of drug discovery, disease management and diagnosis. This was followed by the Nobel laureate Professor Ferid Murad’s speech. He sought that this 3rd ICDDT would provide eminent scientist the opportunity to present their cutting edge researches in the field of drug development and therapy and applications in medicine. He anticipated a large number of researchers to pay homage to these breakthroughs. Next Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman, FRS, the co-president of 3rd ICDDT, delivered his speech delineating this forum to bring out the best in Drug Discovery and Therapy. He discussed how the advancement in education has facilitated interesting perspectives in science and technology and have continued to grow each day in this modern era.

The third conference offered a number of benefits such as exchange of ideas amongst leading pharmaceutical scientists, clinicians and internists; gathered top international scientists and clinicians presenting the cutting-edge discoveries, research and new therapeutic drugs; highlighted the burgeoning field of Translational Medicine - and the major advances from "bench to bedside" research and practice; an international conference to span the interdisciplinary fields of pre-clinical and clinical drug discovery and drug therapy; proffered the exhibitors a direct access to a core audience of professionals to have increased visibility through branding and networking at the conference; rewarded CME accreditation to select attended clinical lectures.

The lectures were conducted in 5 parallel sessions on 7th and 8th Feb, 2011, and were extended to 6 sessions on 9th and 10th Feb 2011. On 9th Feb 2011, an entire session was dedicated to Academic CRO/Industrial Collaborations in Drug Discovery. All the sessions on each day of the conference were favorably attended by the participants and were genuinely appreciated. To ensure that the participants do not miss out the poster sessions, one and a half hour was allotted each day to the poster sessions after the lectures. A number of presents displayed their, thoroughly well made and dedicatedly prepared posters, which attracted a huge number of delegates to appreciate the efforts of the presenters.

The exhibition was another appeal of ICDDT 2011 which was in full progression at an area close to the main auditorium. The exhibition zone catered to the conference poster exhibition, all catering points and the internet cafe. This was done with the intent to provide maximum opportunities to the delegates to visit the commercial exhibition – with the coffee and lunch breaks lounge areas, and poster sessions being conducted nearby. The major exhibitors were the following:

1. Bentham Science Publishers
2. Higher College of Technology
3. Eureka Science
4. Bruker Middle East Branch
5. JSW Lifesciences GmbH

The 3rd ICDDT held a Social Mixer ( with drinks and snaks served) for the participants at Dubai Women’s College on the first day. The Mixer offered the participants a relaxing environment to network, socialize, and share scientific opinions and thoughts with leading researchers and scientists.

The ‘Gala Dinner on Dhow Cruise’ marked an exhilarating episode of the conference. The ‘Dhow Cruise’ was a boat and dinner cruise held on Dubai creek on traditionally ornamented wooden boats.

Major architectural landmarks such as the National Bank of Dubai, Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Sheikh Saeed's house, the Heritage Village , and other endearing sights were seen by all who attended during this moonlit night cruise. This memorable evening offered a buffet dinner of continental and oriental cuisine, with soft drinks and coffee, and traditional Arabic background music. The Dhow Cruise lasted 2 hours, between 7:30-9:30pm. Guests were picked up at 7:00 p.m. from Dubai Women’s College and returned to their respective hotels in the official conference buses.

A new feature of this conference were prizes for the three best posters. A panel of judges included Dr. D.K. Lahiri, Dr. Laurence Lafanechère and Dr. Marek Chorazy were given the responsibility to assess all the posters critically, based on presentation, importance, the research undertaken etc.. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary conducted the prize distribution ceremony and awarded first, second and third prizes to Dr. M. Akran, Dr. Fehmidah Fasim and Dr. Taimour, respectively.

Items that were available for sponsorship at ICDDT 2011 included:

The ICDDT conference is expanding and gaining greater success . It is rapidly becoming the most important global conference in drug discovery and therapy. The 3rd ICDDT symposium was a huge scientific accomplishment, with close to 650 attendees from over 60 countries, and exhibitors and sponsors. The breakthroughs in research in drug discovery and therapeutics were presented in 205 lectures accompanied by 234 poster presentations. This conference was based on 35 scientific tracks spread over 5 concurrent sessions on the first two days, extending to 6 parallel sessions on the last two days.