Essentials Of Translational Pediatric Drug Development

Essentials of Translational Pediatric Drug Development: From Past Needs to Future Opportunities provides integrated and up-to-date insights relevant for both translational researchers and clinicians active in the field of pediatric drug development. The book covers all key aspects from different stakeholder perspectives, providing a literature overview and careful reflection on state-of-the-art approaches. It will be an ideal guide for researchers in the field who are designing and performing high quality, innovative pediatric-adapted drug development by helping them define needs/challenges and possible solutions that advance and harmonize pediatric drug development. Despite the broad consensus that children merit the same quality of drug treatment as any other age group, children remain frequently neglected during drug research and development. Even with the adoption of multiple legislations addressing this problem, the lack of efficacy and safety data of marketed as well as newly developed drugs still remain in the pediatric population.

Decades of research have demonstrated that children do not respond to medications in the same way as adults. Differences between children and adults in the overall response to medications are due to profound anatomical, physiological, and developmental differences. Although few would argue that children should receive medications that have not been adequately tested for safety and efficacy, the majority of drugs prescribed for children-50 to 75 percent-have not been tested in pediatric populations. Without adequate data from such testing, prescribing drugs appropriately becomes challenging for clinicians treating children, from infancy through adolescence. Addressing the Barriers to Pediatric Drug Development is the summary of a workshop, held in Washington, D.C. on June 13, 2006, that was organized to identify barriers to the development and testing of drugs for pediatric populations, as well as ways in which the system can be improved to facilitate better treatments for children.

Pediatric Drug Development: Concepts and Applications is designed as a reference and textbook and is meant to address the science of differences between the pediatric and adult subject in the development of pharmaceutical products. Considered are the ethics and medical needs of proper understanding the pediatric and adult differences, the business case for proper development of drugs for children, as well as the technical feasibility studies and processes that are necessary for a proper pediatric drug development program. The applications of these approaches will benefit all stakeholders and ultimately not only educate but also provide better and safer drugs for pediatric patients.

Focused on pediatric physiology, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, this book illustrates the differences between the pediatric population and adults; knowledge of extreme importance not only during pediatric drug development but also in the clinical practice. Physicians, nurses, clinical pharmacologists, researchers and healthcare professionals will find this an invaluable resource. With the advent of pediatric exclusivity, and requirements to conduct clinical studies in children, an emphasis has been placed on finding a safe and efficacious dose of a drug in children. Children are not ‘small adults’, and drug dosing in this population requires special consideration. There are subtle physiological and biochemical differences among neonates, infants, children, adolescents and adults and dosing in pediatrics requires proper understanding of these factors. Furthermore, dosing in children, as in adults, should be based on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data. This is an evolving area, as pediatric pharmacokinetic studies are becoming mandatory for getting approval of new drugs in this population.

Decades of research have demonstrated that children do not respond to medications in the same way as adults. Differences between children and adults in the overall response to medications are due to profound anatomical, physiological, and developmental differences. Although few would argue that children should receive medications that have not been adequately tested for safety and efficacy, the majority of drugs prescribed for children--50 to 75 percent--have not been tested in pediatric populations. Without adequate data from such testing, prescribing drugs appropriately becomes challenging for clinicians treating children, from infancy through adolescence. Addressing the Barriers to Pediatric Drug Development is the summary of a workshop, held in Washington, D.C. on June 13, 2006, that was organized to identify barriers to the development and testing of drugs for pediatric populations, as well as ways in which the system can be improved to facilitate better treatments for children.

Pediatric Drug Development: Concepts and Applications is designed as a reference and textbook and is meant to address the science of differences between the pediatric and adult subject in the development of pharmaceutical products. Considered are the ethics and medical needs of proper understanding the pediatric and adult differences, the business case for proper development of drugs for children, as well as the technical feasibility studies and processes that are necessary for a proper pediatric drug development program. The applications of these approaches will benefit all stakeholders and ultimately not only educate but also provide better and safer drugs for pediatric patients.

Neurological Disorders is written for researchers in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry who use animal models in research and development of drugs for neurological disorders such as neurofibromatosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington disease, ALS, and the epilepsies. Neurological Disorders has introductory chapters expressing the view of the role and relevance of animal models for drug discovery and development for the treatment of psychiatric disorders from the perspective of (a) academic basic neuroscientific research, (b) applied pharmaceutical drug discovery and development, and (c) issues of clinical trial design and regulatory agencies limitations. Each volume examines the rationale, use, robustness and limitations of animal models in each therapeutic area covered and discuss the use of animal models for target identification and validation. The clinical relevance of animal models is discussed in terms of major limitations in cross-species comparisons, clinical trial design of drug candidates, and how clinical trial endpoints could be improved. The aim of this series of volumes on Animal and Translational Models for CNS Drug Discovery is to identify and provide common endpoints between species that can serve to inform both the clinic and the bench with the information needed to accelerate clinically-effective CNS drug discovery. This is the second volume in the three volume-set, Animal and Translational Models for CNS Drug Discovery 978-0-12-373861-5, which is also available for purchase individually. Clinical, academic, government and industry perspectives fostering integrated communication between principle participants at all stages of the drug discovery process Critical evaluation of animal and translational models improving transition from drug discovery and clinical development Emphasis on what results mean to the overall drug discovery process Exploration of issues in clinical trial design and conductance in each therapeutic area

The Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA) and the Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA) were designed to encourage more pediatric studies of drugs used for children. The FDA asked the IOM to review aspects of pediatric studies and changes in product labeling that resulted from BPCA and PREA and their predecessor policies, as well as assess the incentives for pediatric studies of biologics and the extent to which biologics have been studied in children. The IOM committee concludes that these policies have helped provide clinicians who care for children with better information about the efficacy, safety, and appropriate prescribing of drugs. The IOM suggests that more can be done to increase knowledge about drugs used by children and thereby improve the clinical care, health, and well-being of the nation's children.