The Medicinal Chemistry Divisions of the two Belgian Chemical Societies, "Koninklijke Vlaamse Chemische Vereniging (KVCV)" and "Société Royale de Chimie (SRC)" are organizing every year an international one day symposium in Belgium, with the aim to update interested participants on selected areas of pharmaceutical research by specialists in their respective field.

In recent years, this symposium has been focussing on topics such as “Does size matter? Beyond small molecule therapeutics: challenges and success stories“ (2009), “Small molecules, Antibodies and Natural Products: Multiple Faces of Medicinal Chemistry” (2008); “New Drugs and Drug Candidates: Recent Achievements in Medicinal Chemistry (2007)”; "Personalized Medicine: New Opportunities for Drug Discovery (2006)", or "Targeting the Brain: Successes and Pitfalls (2005)", and has been gathering every year around 170 to 200 participants, half from universities, half from industry, both from Belgium and surrounding countries.

This year's symposium, with six invited lectures and three oral communications, is scheduled to be held on Friday November 25, 2011, at the conference centre “Het Pand” in Ghent and will be chaired by Prof. Serge Van Calenbergh (UGent). The title and focus of the symposium will be “Emerging Targets and Treatments: Opportunities and Challenges for Drug Design”.