Pharmacokinetics in Drug Development

Overview

The UK, like most developed countries, has an ageing population. In the 2001 population census, the average age was 39.0 years, an increase on 1971 when it was 34.1 years. In mid-2006 approximately one in five people in the UK were aged under 16 and one in six people were aged 65 or over. With advancing age comes increased medicine use, furthermore elderly patients are likely to be taking several concomitant medications. This greater drug usage makes them more at risk of suffering from adverse events as a result of drug drug interactions (DDIs). DDIs may be metabolic, transporter, physicochemical or dynamic in nature. In drug development, advances in in vitro science and modelling software have helped to screen out compounds that are most at risk of DDIs before they enter into man. The need to investigate DDIs in the clinic though has not disappeared. Several regulatory agencies have drug interaction guidances; in particular the FDA has recently released a draft guidance entitled ‘Drug
Interaction Studies-Study Design, Data Analysis, and Implications for Dosing and Labeling’ that takes account of current thinking in the field. An understanding of the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamics of the compound, linked to the relevant regulatory guidances is required to deliver a safe and effective medicine that can be used by patients concomitantly with other remedies.

What will participants gain?

• Understanding of the common PK terms and their importance
• Understanding of how PK data influences the clinical development programme
• An understanding of the factors that contribute to variability in PK
• The role of PKPD modelling in drug development
• An appreciation of how regulatory guidances influence PK
• Increased confidence to discuss PK issues within their drug projects

Course Content

Day 1: Pharmacokinetic Principles

Topics

What is PK and why is it important?

• Absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination
• Transporters
• Drug failures
• Therapeutic windows

PK terminology

• Clearance, Volume of distribution etc. What are they and what is there importance

PK techniques

• Non compartmental Analysis
• Compartmental modelling
• Population pharmacokinetics
• Regulatory environment
• Data interpretation

Day 2: PK in Drug Development
Pre-clinical/clinical interface

• What PK data are available, how does this influence the Clinical PK strategy?
• Biomarkers
• Implications for CTA- dose choice and dose escalation in first to man studies, adaptive dosing

Variability in PK

• Drug interactions; CYPs and transporters strategies and regulatory guidance; types of interaction competitive vs mechanism based; implications for study design (restrictions healthy volunteers vs patients etc)
• Genetic polymorphisms
• Paediatrics

Biologics

• Pharmacokinetics/Pharmacodynamics
• Study Design
• Regulatory Environment

There will also be several "learning in action" workshops during both days where participants will have the opportunity to apply knowledge gained during the lectures. an open forum session will be held where delegates can bring along their own issues for discussion.

In-house Training

Reap the benefits of in-house pharma training with:

Up to 70% savings on delegate fees
No travel or accommodation costs
Customised content to meet your requirements
Big print savings on course material - especially with larger groups
Discussion of in-house issues
Better relationships and exchange of experiences
Courses arranged for large groups up to 24 staff
Tutorials available for small groups of 2 or 3 staff
Meet course speakers in advance to discuss design and content