Addiction is a major public health issue affecting millions worldwide. Innovative solutions are urgently needed to combat this crisis, reduce its impact, and save lives. The World Innovation Day for Addiction Therapeutics serves as a platform for fostering collaboration between academia, health sector, regulatory agencies, and industry, driving innovation, and accelerating the development of effective tools and technologies for assessment and treatments for addiction and its comorbidities. By bringing together experts from various fields, this event aims to catalyze the development of new modalities for assessment, therapies, and interventions. There are several reasons why convening such an event matters:
Bridging the Gap: There is often a disconnection between scientific discoveries and their implementation in real-world settings. This event aims to bridge that gap by facilitating dialogue and collaboration between clinicians from the addiction medicine/psychiatry academia, industry professionals, and researchers from both, facilitating the translation of groundbreaking research into tangible benefits for patients.
Enhancing Investment: Securing funding is a significant hurdle in the journey from research to market. The presence of senior venture capital and other types of investors and funding agencies at this event provides a unique opportunity for startups and established companies to showcase their innovations, attract investment, and accelerate their growth.
Knowledge Sharing: The event will feature multiple panels and lectures, offering participants a chance to share their experiences, learn from each other, and stay updated on the latest trends and advancements in the field of addiction medicine therapeutics. This exchange of knowledge is crucial for driving progress and fostering a collaborative environment.
Building a Stronger Community: By gathering many leaders from clinics, universities, industry, regulatory agencies and investment communities, this event creates a robust network of professionals committed to improving addiction treatment. These connections can lead to long-term collaborations, innovative projects, and a stronger, more unified approach to addressing addiction.
The First World Innovation Day for Addiction Therapeutics will be on May 25th, in Hamburg, Germany as a full day pre-conference event for the ISAM 2025 Annual Congress
What is Innovation?
The word “Innovation”, by the NIH competency dictionary, is defined as developing new insights into situations and applying different and novel solutions to make improvements. This event includes a broad range of activities in addiction medicine from prevention, assessment & diagnosis to addiction treatment, relapse prevention & rehabilitation by both individual and population-based approaches.
Potential Fields of Innovation in Prevention & Treatment of Addictions
Who is Invited?
We would like to invite all companies, startups, and entrepreneurs active in developing products for addiction prevention, assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation to join us for “World Innovations for Addiction Therapeutics – From Scientific Discovery to Saving Lives.” This is an ISAM event designed for academia/industry partnership, focusing on innovation and investment in newest technologies for helping patients affected by addictions and their comorbidities. This event will take place on Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Hamburg, Germany, as part of the official pre-conference activities of the ISAM 27th Global Congress. Bringing together more than many leaders from clinics, universities, industry, and investment communities, this unique gathering aims to facilitate the exchange of experiences and visions for this evolving field.
At ISAM’s Innovations Day, both innovators and established companies will have the opportunity to share their ideas, product and company narratives with clinicians, scientists, venture capitalists, engineers, regulatory agencies, and industry professionals. Aligned with the theme of the day, participating companies are invited to spotlight the challenges and advantages of innovation specific to their products from discovery to implementation in communities. The agenda for the day will include multiple panels and talks, ensuring that all the registered, invited and willing participants have the opportunity for podium time, either individually or as part of panel discussions.
In addition to the presenting companies, senior venture capital investors from major corporations will be invited. This offers an excellent platform for you and your company to showcase your vision, ideas, achievements, forge new connections, learn from peers, assess progress, and become more competitive and successful in the future market of addiction therapeutics.
Download the Event Flyer: ISAM-GATID-2025-Flyer
Organizing Team
Chair: ISAM President, Hamed AlGhaferi
Scientific Director: Hamed Ekhtiari
Leadership Team: Marc Potenza, Alexander Balddachino, Yasse Khazaal, Tarek Gawad, Susanna Galea-Singer, Atul Ambekar, Jens Reimer, Philip Hillier (ISAM2025), Mary Janssen van Raay (ISAM2026)
Technical and Intellectual Inputs: Ivan Montoya (NIDA), Anja Busse (UNODC), Marica Ferri (EUDA), Dzmitry Krupchanka (WHO), Anne Lingford-Hughes (Addiction Mission, UK)
Compliance Officer: Roshan Bhad
ISAM Officer: Marilyn Dorozio
Executive Team: Philip Hillier (ISAM2025), Mary Janssen van Raay (ISAM2026), Yasser Gawad, Mehran Zare-Bidoky, Arash Zonoozi, Mehmet Serhat Yildirim, Fateme-Sadat Abolghasemi, Başak Ünübol, Ediz Eyüpoğlu, Jenna Butner, Mehran Zare-Bidoky, Henning Vieker, Kirsten Lehmann, Sayena Ghofrani
The Agenda Outline (TBC)
A. Morning Sessions
– 07:00 – 8:30: Registration, and networking
– 8:30 – 8:45: Welcome and Introduction, Chair and Scientific Director
– 08:45 – 09:00: Opening Talk: Urgent Needs for Innovations in Addiction Therapeutics in the Global Level, Anja Busse (UNODC) and Dzmitry Krupchanka (WHO)
– 09:00 – 09:30: Lecture 1: Innovations in Addiction Therapeutics, Ivan Motoya, Director, Division of Therapeutics and Medical Consequences at US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
– 09:30 – 10:00: Lecture 2: Regulatory Considerations in Development of Therapeutics: From Discovery to Market, European and US Perspective, EMA Representative and FDA Representative
– 10:00 – 10:45: Companies and Startups Panel I: Preclinical Advances in Novel Molecular, Cellular and Circuit-based Targets for Addiction Therapeutics (3-4 companies)
– 10:45 – 11:15: Break
– 11:15 – 11:45: Lecture 3: How Brain Mapping Can Inform New Generation of Circuit-based Addiction Treatment
– 11:45 – 12:30: Companies and Startups Panel II: Neuromodulation for Addiction Therapeutics (3-4 companies)
– 12:30 – 13:30: Lunch Break
B. Afternoon Sessions
– 13:30 – 14:00: Lecture 4: How Mobile Apps and Telemedicine Can Reshape the Future of Addiction Treatment?
– 14:00 – 14:45: Companies and Startups Panel III: Digital and Behavioral Therapeutics (3-4 companies)
– 14:45 – 15:30: Companies and Startups Panel IV: From Early Clinical to Ready to Launch Products (3-4 companies)
– 15:30 – 16:00: Lecture 5: Global Governments and International Organizations Panel: WHO, UNODC, USA (NIDA), Europe (EUDA), UK, Japan, Brazil, Australia
– 16:00 – 16:30: Discussion Panel: Feedbacks from Addiction Clinicians and People with Lived or Living Experience in Drug Use: Most Promising Innovations in Addiction Therapeutics
– 16:30 – 17:00: Closing Remarks
– 19:00 – 21:00: Informal Social and Networking Dinner and Bar (out of pocket unless we will find a sponsor)
This meeting will be a pre-conference event with many opportunities for further discussions and networking meetings during 3 days of ISAM2025 conference.
The Application Process
We encourage all companies, startups, and entrepreneurs actively developing products for addiction prevention, assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation to consider participating in this event. If you are interested, please submit your letter of interest by emailing the ISAM office at isam.mdorozio@gmail.com with CC to innovation@isamweb.org to join the event at your earliest convenience. The email’s subject line should be “Expressing Interest in ISAM 2025 Innovation Day”. Subsequently, you will hear from us.
Please note that the established companies selected to participate will enter into an agreement with the ISAM through which the responsibilities/liabilities/entitlements of each of the parties shall be articulated and agreed upon. Please also note that each company selected to participate will, as a part of the agreement with ISAM, provide an unrestricted grant to the ISAM, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization registered in Canada, besides paying the registration fee for the ISAM 2025 conference.