LONDON, January 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Yes, it's true - UK children really do prefer the taste of oranges and strawberries over soft-drink flavours like fizzy cola.
That's just one of the findings to be announced at the Formulating Better Medicines for Children conference, the first event of its kind to draw together Europe's experts on the design, manufacture, delivery and thinking behind paediatric medicine.
Hosted by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB), the two-day conference in March will put the spotlight on issues regarding the creation of medicines for children aged 0 to 16, in addition to the step-change in clinical trials involving young people.
The National Institute of Health Research's (NIHR) Medicines for Children Research Network's Consumer Liaison Officer, Jenny Newman said since 2006 the network had been conducting ground-breaking research with children - previously a neglected group in medicine trials.
Jenny Newman said: Very few children had been asked their views on children's medicines and this is something the MCRN are keen to explore.
The research we've undertaken with children has turned up some interesting preliminary results - for example, fruit-flavoured medicines are more popular than those mimicking the taste of cola.
Also, children are quite happy to have an injection, depending on how the process is conducted.
Now, research is taking into account how children best respond to medicine, leading to changes which may seem small but which have a big impact on children - like having medicine in a straw.
The RPSGB's Chief Scientific Advisor, Jayne Lawrence said: For the first time, children's medicines are being looked at with real interest.
Not only is tailoring medicine for children through tablet size and flavouring important, but researchers are really examining how children's bodies process the drugs they are taking.
Children are not simply smaller versions of adults - they cannot always be given a scaled-down variation of medicine formulated for adults. Also, a child of two is completely different to a young person of 16, so their medicine needs vary. It's an extremely interesting area of research which is becoming a priority world-wide.
Based around the new EU paediatric regulations, other issues to be discussed at the conference include changes to medicine taste-masking, inactive substances used as active ingredient carriers in medicines, the quality of formulations produced for individual patients and issues around medicine formulation in developing countries.
The Formulating Better Medicines for Children conference will be held from March 2-3 at the RSPGB in Lambeth, in partnership with the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the European Paediatric Formulation Initiative.
Conference numbers are limited. If you would like to register, please email events@rpsgb.org or phone +44(0)207-572-2640.
For media enquiries please contact the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain's Public Relations Unit +44(0)20-7572-2336
