Pharmaceutical MedicinePub Date : 2024-03-01Epub Date: 2024-02-27DOI: 10.1007/s40290-024-00516-z
Michael E Kieffer
{"title":"Why Oncology Global Safety Teams Should Develop the Safety Section of the Study's Target Product Profile (TPP).","authors":"Michael E Kieffer","doi":"10.1007/s40290-024-00516-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40290-024-00516-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Oncology Global Safety Teams (GSTs) are not universally tasked with the development of the risk section of the products target product profile (TPP). This fact makes little sense since the GST is tasked by the company to identify, analyze, and mitigate a product's risks. The TPP, in essence, establishes boundaries for go/no-go decisions around a product or products in combination treatment. Involvement of the Oncology GST in producing a well-researched and evidenced based TPP safety section allows the team to develop knowledge around the drug(s) studied or added to a study arm. The increased use of umbrella and platform studies for early-phase oncology trials allows an excellent resource for the use of clinical data to estimate the risk of developmental drugs combined to treat a given oncology indication. To shorten time to marketing, companies are including developmental products with novel mechanisms early within their development cycles. Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) and bi-directional antibodies are a few examples of products combined in arms of a platform or umbrella study early and with only immature clinical data available. This article will share a novel analytical approach for safety teams to develop a well thought-out and defendable safety section to the TPP. Strategies to estimate the risks associated with combination therapies will be brought forward. The advantages of having the safety team involved early in the benefit/risk, go/no-go decisions for a study or the addition of a study arm will be detailed. The early development of a well-documented TPP will enhance chances of a successful product submission.</p>","PeriodicalId":19778,"journal":{"name":"Pharmaceutical Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"97-108"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139973020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pharmaceutical MedicinePub Date : 2024-03-01Epub Date: 2024-03-07DOI: 10.1007/s40290-024-00518-x
Shubhadeep D Sinha, Sreenivasa Chary Sriramadasu, Ruby Raphael, Sudeshna Roy
{"title":"Decentralisation in Clinical Trials and Patient Centricity: Benefits and Challenges.","authors":"Shubhadeep D Sinha, Sreenivasa Chary Sriramadasu, Ruby Raphael, Sudeshna Roy","doi":"10.1007/s40290-024-00518-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40290-024-00518-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Decentralised clinical trials (DCTs) encompass various terms such as virtual, home-based, remote and siteless trials. The objectives of DCTs are to enhance the ease of participation for patients in clinical trials by minimising or removing the necessity for trial subjects to travel to the trial sites. This approach has been shown to reduce drop-out rates, increase study effectiveness and ultimately get life-altering drugs to market faster-saving sponsors billions. At the outset, DCTs deploy a wide range of digital technologies to collect safety and efficacy data from study participants, providing study treatments and performing investigations from the comfort of the patient's own home. The aim of decentralised trials includes patient centricity, enhanced efficacy in clinical trial conduct and generating real-world data. This is done by not only making it convenient for the patient to participate in the trial execution, but also involving them from the planning stage and taking their inputs during designing of trials and consenting documentation, understanding their treatment requirements and designing the studies accordingly. Various regulatory authorities have published guidelines governing DCT principles, especially after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) experience of undertaking multicentric clinical trials. Both United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) have newer, recently updated guidelines to capture this growing reality to undertake clinical trials using patient technology or patient-centric technologies. Other regulatory agencies are accepting data generated using decentralised and patient-centric technologies and making an effort to include elements of decentralised trials in their regulatory guidelines. Decentralised trials follow a hybrid approach to have a balanced mix of remote and in-person data collection and trial procedures. Decentralised and patient-centric approaches are the future of any organisation for the conduct of clinical trials. Globally, all sponsor pharmaceutical companies must start undertaking drug development and clinical trials using a decentralised approach while keeping patient centricity in mind.</p>","PeriodicalId":19778,"journal":{"name":"Pharmaceutical Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"109-120"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140060144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pharmaceutical MedicinePub Date : 2024-03-01Epub Date: 2024-01-24DOI: 10.1007/s40290-023-00513-8
Nidhi Mehrotra, Padmavati Manchikanti
{"title":"Emergency Approval Mechanisms for Human Vaccines in India.","authors":"Nidhi Mehrotra, Padmavati Manchikanti","doi":"10.1007/s40290-023-00513-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40290-023-00513-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic highlighted the world's level of preparedness in managing public health emergencies (PHEs). It revealed the critical need for timely medical therapeutics, especially vaccines. To expedite response, many nations, including India, adopted emergency approval mechanisms and offered new ways of review, such as the rolling review along with the accelerated review procedure. This response resulted in reallocating internal resources and adopting new policies and measures, such as integrating digital technology with regulatory submissions and flexibility in statistical approaches. The present review focuses on the utilization of the New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules 2019 for granting emergency approval to COVID-19 vaccines by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) and explores the legislative basis for such authorization during the PHE. The review aims to elucidate key intricacies and challenges inherent in the existing 'emergency use' framework within the Indian regulatory landscape. It assesses three critical facets of the 'emergency use' paradigm: the definition of the term, establishment of a transparent decision-making process, and formulation of rules governing termination or expiration of the emergency status. It makes policy recommendations regarding the 'emergency use' framework to respond to new, emerging, or re-emerging public health threats of the future.</p>","PeriodicalId":19778,"journal":{"name":"Pharmaceutical Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"121-132"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139542815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pharmaceutical MedicinePub Date : 2024-03-01Epub Date: 2024-02-29DOI: 10.1007/s40290-024-00515-0
Thomas Hügle
{"title":"Advancing Rheumatology Care Through Machine Learning.","authors":"Thomas Hügle","doi":"10.1007/s40290-024-00515-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40290-024-00515-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Rheumatologic diseases are marked by their complexity, involving immune-, metabolic- and mechanically mediated processes which can affect different organ systems. Despite a growing arsenal of targeted medications, many rheumatology patients fail to achieve full remission. Assessing disease activity remains challenging, as patients prioritize different symptoms and disease phenotypes vary. This is also reflected in clinical trials where the efficacy of drugs is not necessarily measured in an optimal way with the traditional outcome assessment. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed a digital transformation in healthcare, embracing telemonitoring and patient-reported data via apps and wearables. As a further driver of digital medicine, electronic medical record (EMR) providers are actively engaged in developing algorithms for clinical decision support, heralding a shift towards patient-centered, decentralized care. Machine learning algorithms have emerged as valuable tools for handling the increasing volume of patient data, promising to enhance treatment quality and patient well-being. Convolutional neural networks (CNN) are particularly promising for radiological image analysis, aiding in the detection of specific lesions such as erosions, sacroiliitis, or osteoarthritis, with several FDA-approved applications. Clinical predictions, including numerical disease activity forecasts and medication choices, offer the potential to optimize treatment strategies. Numeric predictions can be integrated into clinical workflows, allowing for shared decision making with patients. Clustering patients based on disease characteristics provides a personalized care approach. Digital biomarkers, such as patient-reported outcomes and wearables data, offer insights into disease progression and therapy response more flexibly and outside patient consultations. In association with patient-reported outcomes, disease-specific digital biomarkers via image recognition or single-camera motion capture enables more efficient remote patient monitoring. Digital biomarkers may also play a major role in clinical trials in the future as continuous, disease-specific outcome measurement facilitating decentralized studies. Prediction models can help with patient selection in clinical trials, such as by predicting high disease activity. Efforts are underway to integrate these advancements into clinical workflows using digital pathways and remote patient monitoring platforms. In summary, machine learning, digital biomarkers, and advanced imaging technologies hold immense promise for enhancing clinical decision support and clinical trials in rheumatology. Effective integration will require a multidisciplinary approach and continued validation through prospective studies.</p>","PeriodicalId":19778,"journal":{"name":"Pharmaceutical Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"87-96"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10948517/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139990798","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pharmaceutical MedicinePub Date : 2024-03-01Epub Date: 2024-02-05DOI: 10.1007/s40290-023-00504-9
Giulio Napolitano, Canan Has, Anne Schwerk, Jui-Hung Yuan, Carsten Ullrich
{"title":"Potential of Artificial Intelligence to Accelerate Drug Development for Rare Diseases.","authors":"Giulio Napolitano, Canan Has, Anne Schwerk, Jui-Hung Yuan, Carsten Ullrich","doi":"10.1007/s40290-023-00504-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40290-023-00504-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The growth in breadth and depth of artificial intelligence (AI) applications has been fast, running hand in hand with the increasing amount of digital data available. Here, we comment on the application of AI in the field of drug development, with a strong focus on the specific achievements and challenges posed by rare diseases. Data paucity and high costs make drug development for rare diseases especially hard. AI can enable otherwise inaccessible approaches based on the large-scale integration of heterogeneous datasets and knowledge bases, guided by expert biological understanding. Obstacles still exist for the routine use of AI in the usually conservative pharmaceutical domain, which can easily become disillusioned. It is crucial to acknowledge that AI is a powerful, supportive tool that can assist but not replace human expertise in the various phases and aspects of drug discovery and development.</p>","PeriodicalId":19778,"journal":{"name":"Pharmaceutical Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"79-86"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139692586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Physician Awareness of the Safe Use of Cyproterone Acetate in Europe: A Survey on the Effectiveness of Additional Risk Minimization Measures.","authors":"Carolyn Sweeney, Alicia Gilsenan, Brian Calingaert, Carsten Moeller, Gesa Schomakers, Alen Sok, Ruth Holzmann, Federica Pisa","doi":"10.1007/s40290-023-00510-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40290-023-00510-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Cyproterone acetate (CPA) is a synthetic progesterone derivative introduced in the 1970s and prescribed as antiandrogenic therapy for inoperable prostate cancer, sexual deviations in men, and signs of androgenization in women. In 2020, the CPA summary of product characteristics (SmPC) was revised to include an updated special warning and precaution about (1) the risk of meningioma with increasing cumulative dose and (2) contraindication in patients with meningioma or history of meningioma. A Direct Healthcare Professional Communication (DHPC) was distributed. The European Medicine Agency's Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee requested that marketing authorization holders in Europe conduct a survey to assess physicians' knowledge of the updated key safety information. The primary objective of this study was to measure physicians' awareness (i.e., did they receive and review the revised SmPC and DHPC) and level of knowledge and understanding of the key safety information pertaining to the restricted use of CPA monotherapy because of the risk of meningioma.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This cross-sectional web-based survey was administered to dermatologists, endocrinologists, gynecologists, urologists, oncologists, psychiatrists, and general practitioners in France, Germany, Poland, Spain, and the Netherlands who had prescribed CPA monotherapy in the previous 12 months to assess awareness of the risk of meningioma associated with CPA monotherapy.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of the 613 physicians who participated, 85% correctly indicated that CPA monotherapy should be prescribed with the lowest effective dose, 75% correctly indicated that the risk of meningioma increases with increasing cumulative CPA monotherapy doses, and 73% correctly indicated that treatment with CPA-containing products must be stopped permanently if a patient is diagnosed with meningioma. Overall, 40% of physicians reported having received the DHPC, and 42% reported having received the revised SmPC.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Despite low recall of receipt of the updated SmPC and DHPC, most physicians surveyed are aware of the meningioma risk and actions to mitigate the risk.</p>","PeriodicalId":19778,"journal":{"name":"Pharmaceutical Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"145-156"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10948458/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139651372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Female Problems: Women's Health Mustn't be Ghettoized in the Uterus.","authors":"Peter J Pitts","doi":"10.1007/s40290-023-00514-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40290-023-00514-7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19778,"journal":{"name":"Pharmaceutical Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"75-77"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139542818","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rare Immune-Related Adverse Events (irAEs): Approach to Diagnosis and Management.","authors":"Anadil Javaid, Catherine Bennett, Aparna Rao, Lavinia Spain","doi":"10.1007/s40290-023-00508-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40290-023-00508-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionised the treatment landscape across many solid organ malignancies and form part of routine clinical practice in many tumours. As indications for monotherapy, doublet therapy and combination approaches with chemotherapy and targeted agents expand, clinicians must be aware of the wide range of possible immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Common toxicities, including rash, colitis, hepatitis and pneumonitis are well described in the literature, and have established diagnostic and management algorithms. Rarer toxicities, often with an incidence of less than 1%, are less defined. These syndromes can be poorly recognised, may take on a fulminant course and do not have established or evidence-based diagnostic and management strategies. As such, patients may experience increased morbidity, mortality and poorer outcomes, related both to these irAEs as well as how the treatment of these may affect the management of their underlying malignancy. In this review, we aim to explore the incidence, potential biomarkers, pathogenesis, diagnostic work-up and clinical sequelae of a selection of uncommon irAEs, with a focus on myocarditis, neurological and haematologic syndromes. Further prospective research is required to accurately define the incidence and pathogenesis of these conditions, with the aim of increasing clinician awareness of rare irAEs and to assist with a more personalised and mechanism-based approach to these syndromes.</p>","PeriodicalId":19778,"journal":{"name":"Pharmaceutical Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"25-38"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10824871/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139403934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pharmaceutical MedicinePub Date : 2024-01-01Epub Date: 2023-12-22DOI: 10.1007/s40290-023-00503-w
Bernard Vrijens, Antoine Pironet, Eric Tousset
{"title":"The Importance of Assessing Drug Exposure and Medication Adherence in Evaluating Investigational Medications: Ensuring Validity and Reliability of Clinical Trial Results.","authors":"Bernard Vrijens, Antoine Pironet, Eric Tousset","doi":"10.1007/s40290-023-00503-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40290-023-00503-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The objective of this current opinion paper is to draw global attention to medication adherence, emphasizing its crucial role in drug trials. Frequently, trialists lean on traditional approaches to assess medication adherence, which, while comfortable, may only reveal what trialists desire rather than offering the essential insights needed for informed decision making in drug development. Understanding drug exposure and medication adherence is paramount when evaluating the effectiveness and safety of investigational medications. Without a comprehensive understanding of how patients adhere to their prescribed treatment regimens, the integrity and dependability of clinical trial results can be compromised. This paper emphasizes the need for measures that accurately and reliably assess medication intake behaviors, enabling the differentiation between minor dosing errors and significant deviations that may impact the drug's efficacy and safety. Accurate knowledge of drug exposure empowers researchers to make informed decisions, identify potential confounding factors, and appropriately interpret study outcomes, ultimately ensuring the validity and reliability of the research findings. By prioritizing drug exposure assessment and medication adherence measurement, clinical trials can enhance their scientific rigor, contribute to more accurate evaluations of investigational medications, and ultimately speed up the development process.</p>","PeriodicalId":19778,"journal":{"name":"Pharmaceutical Medicine","volume":" ","pages":"9-18"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10824809/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138885618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}