Royal Society of Chemistry--sixth international symposium on applied bioinorganic chemistry.

This was the sixth in a series of symposia that began in Beijing, China in 1986. Approximately 100 chemists, environmental and biomedical scientists from 25 countries attended the meeting and presented some 80 papers on topics ranging from cancer chemotherapy to the production of paper. About half the papers presented could be broadly described as having medical implications, and of these, approximately half related directly to the use of platinum and the potential uses of other metals, such as palladium and the lanthanides, as anticancer agents. Many of these papers provided valuable insights into mechanisms of action and offered pointers for future research, but only rarely did they point to potential new drugs that might find early exploitation in clinical medicine. Two of the more exciting clinical developments were the introduction of the insulin-mimetic bis(maltolato)oxovanadium(IV) (KP-102; Kinetek Pharmaceuticals Inc/University of British Columbia) into clinical trials in the UK for the treatment of Type II diabetes, and the increasing importance of the orally active agent 3-hydroxy-pyridin-4-one-deferiprone (Apotex Inc/Cipla Ltd), in the treatment of iron overload in thalassemia.