Professor Shiyong Liu Attends the 2026 Annual Meeting of the CPA Committee on Pharmaceutical Excipients and Delivers a Plenary Lecture

The 2026 Annual Meeting of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association (CPA) Committee on Pharmaceutical Excipients was held on November 7–9 at the Jiangning Campus of China Pharmaceutical University in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Organized by the CPA, the meeting focused on digital and intelligent innovation in new materials for the biopharmaceutical value chain. Academic discussions covered excipient standards and quality control, excipient functionality and formulation performance, and innovation and translation into applications, with attention to the connection between materials research and pharmaceutical formulation development.

Professor Shiyong Liu of the University of Science and Technology of China attended the meeting and delivered a plenary lecture on the morning of November 8. Entitled "Precision Polymer Chemistry for Next-Generation Pharmaceutical Excipients," the lecture focused on the intersection of precision polymer chemistry and excipient development. It connected molecular structure design with the application requirements of pharmaceutical materials, providing a polymer chemistry perspective for discussing and exploring new excipients.

Figure 1. The main conference hall during Professor Shiyong Liu’s plenary lecture at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the CPA Committee on Pharmaceutical Excipients.

Pharmaceutical excipients are important components of drug formulations. For polymeric excipients, chemical composition, chain length, end groups, and molecular structure are fundamental to understanding material properties and suitability for an intended use. Progressing from synthesis to formulation requires more than obtaining a target product. Researchers also need to establish whether its structure can be identified accurately, whether different batches can be compared reliably, and how its properties match specific application requirements. Materials with more clearly defined molecular structures can support more focused investigation of these questions.

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) illustrates this approach. Conventional PEG generally comprises molecules of different chain lengths and is commonly described by average molecular weight and dispersity. Single-molecular-weight precision PEG has a defined number of repeating units, making its chain length and end-group composition more explicit. This structural definition can reduce interference from chain-length distributions during material screening and provide a clearer basis for monitoring reactions, analyzing product structures, and investigating relationships between structure and performance. Its value therefore extends across material preparation and subsequent analytical evaluation.

In research on protein and peptide conjugation, drug linkers, and delivery materials, PEG chain length and terminal functionality provide distinct options for molecular design. Combining structurally defined PEG segments with reactive groups, lipids, or other functional units enables the preparation of material series for comparative studies. Examining chain length, end groups, and linkage chemistry individually within a defined structural framework can help clarify how changes in composition relate to application performance and guide further functional optimization.

Translating a precisely defined molecule into a usable material also requires synthesis, purification, and analytical characterization to work together. Obtaining the target structure is a starting point; impurity identification, quality assessment, and reproducibility of preparation also require continuing attention. The meeting’s emphasis on quality control, formulation performance, and translation reflects the need to advance materials innovation alongside evaluation for intended applications.

Precision Polymer Technologies Co., Ltd. was established through the transfer of rights to research outcomes from the University of Science and Technology of China and focuses on precision polymer materials and their applications. Working on single-molecular-weight precision PEG, its derivatives, and precision PEG lipids, the company continues to develop capabilities in molecular design, precision synthesis, structural characterization, and scalable preparation to support research in pharmaceutical excipients, nanomedicines, and nucleic acid delivery.

Figure 2. Professor Shiyong Liu delivers his plenary lecture, "Precision Polymer Chemistry for Next-Generation Pharmaceutical Excipients."

Precision Polymer will continue to follow academic developments and practical needs in pharmaceutical excipients. Its materials R&D will seek closer integration of structural identification, quality assessment, and functional studies, supporting further connections between precision polymer research and biomedical applications.