The first International Symposium on Advances in Pharmaceu-tical Analysis (APA 2017) was started and held successfully in Wuhan University, China from November 17 to 19, 2017. The orga-nization of the 2nd International Symposium on Advances in Phar-maceutical Analysis in the capital city of Flanders, Lille, was both an exciting and challenging project because the idea of an annual meeting between our two long cooperating Schools of Pharmaceu-tical Sciences of Wuhan and Lille, stood to reason.