Uncertainty in Drug Development: Approval Success Rates for New Drugs

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-150
Author(s):  
Nicola J. Stagg ◽  
Hanan N. Ghantous ◽  
Robert Roth ◽  
Kenneth L. Hastings

Nonclinical toxicology studies are conducted to characterize the potential toxicities and establish a safe starting dose for new drugs in clinical studies, but the question remains as to how predictable/translatable the nonclinical safety findings are to humans. In many cases, there is good concordance between nonclinical species and patients. However, there are cases for which there is a lack of predictivity or translatability that led to early termination of clinical studies due to unanticipated toxicities or early termination of programs before making it to the clinic due to unacceptable nonclinical toxicities assumed to be translatable. A few case examples of safety findings that are translatable versus safety findings that are not translatable and why they are not translateable were presented as a symposium at the 38th Annual Meeting of the American College of Toxicology in Palm Springs, California, and are discussed in this article.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miao-Miao Zhao ◽  
Wei-Li Yang ◽  
Fang-Yuan Yang ◽  
Li Zhang ◽  
Wei-Jin Huang ◽  
...  

AbstractTo discover new drugs to combat COVID-19, an understanding of the molecular basis of SARS-CoV-2 infection is urgently needed. Here, for the first time, we report the crucial role of cathepsin L (CTSL) in patients with COVID-19. The circulating level of CTSL was elevated after SARS-CoV-2 infection and was positively correlated with disease course and severity. Correspondingly, SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus infection increased CTSL expression in human cells in vitro and human ACE2 transgenic mice in vivo, while CTSL overexpression, in turn, enhanced pseudovirus infection in human cells. CTSL functionally cleaved the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and enhanced virus entry, as evidenced by CTSL overexpression and knockdown in vitro and application of CTSL inhibitor drugs in vivo. Furthermore, amantadine, a licensed anti-influenza drug, significantly inhibited CTSL activity after SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus infection and prevented infection both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, CTSL is a promising target for new anti-COVID-19 drug development.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 691
Author(s):  
Milana Bergamino Sirvén ◽  
Sonia Pernas ◽  
Maggie C. U. Cheang

The rapidly evolving landscape of immuno-oncology (IO) is redefining the treatment of a number of cancer types. IO treatments are becoming increasingly complex, with different types of drugs emerging beyond checkpoint inhibitors. However, many of the new drugs either do not progress from phase I-II clinical trials or even fail in late-phase trials. We have identified at least five areas in the development of promising IO treatments that should be redefined for more efficient designs and accelerated approvals. Here we review those critical aspects of IO drug development that could be optimized for more successful outcome rates in all cancer types. It is important to focus our efforts on the mechanisms of action, types of response and adverse events of these novel agents. The use of appropriate clinical trial designs with robust biomarkers of response and surrogate endpoints will undoubtedly facilitate the development and subsequent approval of these drugs. Further research is also needed to establish biomarker-driven strategies to select which patients may benefit from immunotherapy and identify potential mechanisms of resistance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chise Tateno ◽  
Yuha Kojima

AbstractWe have succeeded in stable mass production of chimeric PXB-mice, whose liver is repopulated by human hepatocytes at a ratio of more than 70%, and we are providing these mice to academia and pharmaceutical companies to support the development of new drugs or studies of liver function. Furthermore, we isolated human hepatocytes, called PXB-cells, from the chimeric mice, and provide them for clients weekly for in vitro studies. In this review, we summarize the existing characterizations of PXB-mice and PXB-cells and their present and future applications.


Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1647
Author(s):  
Keishi Kisoh ◽  
Go Sugahara ◽  
Yuko Ogawa ◽  
Suzue Furukawa ◽  
Yuji Ishida ◽  
...  

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease/steatohepatitis (NAFLD/NASH) is the most common liver disorder in developed countries. Although many new therapeutics for NASH are present in the drug development pipeline, there are still no approved drugs. One of the reasons that makes NASH drug development challenging is the lack of appropriate animal NASH models that resolve issues arising from inter-species differences between humans and rodents. In the present study, we developed a choline-deficient, L-amino-acid-defined, high-fat-diet (CDAHFD)-induced human NASH model using human liver chimeric mice. We demonstrated human hepatocyte injury by an elevation of plasma human alanine aminotransferase 1 in mice fed CDAHFD. Histological analysis showed that CDAHFD feeding induced similar histological changes to human NASH patients, including ballooning, inflammation, apoptosis, regeneration of human hepatocytes, and pericellular and perisinusoidal fibrosis. The chimeric mice fed CDAHFD were treated with a peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptor α/δ agonist, Elafibranor. Elafibranor ameliorated steatosis, ballooning of hepatocytes, and preserved fibrosis progression. We developed a novel humanized NASH model that can elucidate pathophysiological mechanisms and predict therapeutic efficacy in human NASH. This model will be useful in exploring new drugs and biomarkers in the early stages of human NASH.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 20-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Rozhnova ◽  
A. V. Tsypkina

Introduction. In the development and introduction of medicines into production, the aim of pharmaceutical manufacturers is to comply with the principle of «Quality-by-Design» (QbD). The International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) has created a number of GxP standards, which have become the regulatory framework for the development of documentation regulating the requirements for the development and production of drug products for countries focused on bringing their products to the world pharmaceutical market. The analysis of the system of regulation of pharmaceutical stages of development of new drugs in the territory of the Eurasian Economic Union was not considered, but for the formation of a systematic approach to the management of the process of pharmaceutical development it is necessary to describe them.Aim. To analyze the possibility of applying the QbD principle to the process of drug development at domestic pharmaceutical enterprises.Materials and methods. Content analysis of scientific publications, system and comparative analysis, sociological methods of research in the field of pharmaceutical development.Results and discussions. Regulatory state requirements to the organization and conduct of drug development procedures are analyzed and described. A number of systemic and sectoral problems typical for domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers in the organization of the development and implementation of new drug products. It is established that one of the main problems for Russian enterprises was the organization of the process as a whole and its individual procedures. To solve the problem of organization of procedures for the development and implementation of new medicines, we formed a methodological support, developed on the basis of a systematic approach and international requirements from the quality system.Conclusion. The main problem identified by the manufacturers is the lack of methodological support for the organization of the processes of pharmaceutical development and the introduction of new drugs in the part of research going to the stage of preclinical and clinical development. The decisions adopted by the Eurasian Economic Union do not affect such aspects of pharmaceutical development regulation as the organization of processes, their management and methodological support aimed at the implementation of the QbD principle. To solve this problem, we have developed guidelines for the implementation of the processes of pharmaceutical development and the introduction of new drug products, which allowed us to apply unified and formalized approaches to their organization. 


Hematology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (1) ◽  
pp. 496-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Acquadro ◽  
Antoine Regnault

Abstract Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are any outcome evaluated directly by the patient himself and based on the patient's perception of a disease and its treatment(s). PROs are direct outcome measures that can be used as clinical meaningful endpoints to characterize treatment benefit. They provide unique and important information about the effect of treatment from a patient's view. However, PROs will only be considered adequate if the assessment is well-defined and reliable. In 2009, the FDA has issued a guidance, which defines good measurement principles to consider for PRO measures intended to give evidence of treatment benefit in drug development. In hematologic clinical trials, when applied rigorously, they may be used to evaluate overall treatment effectiveness, treatment toxicity, and quality of patient's well-being at short-term and long-term after treatment from a patient's perspective. In situations in which multiple treatment options exist with similar survival outcome or if a new therapeutic strategy needs to be evaluated, the inclusion of PROs as an endpoint can provide additional data and help in clinical decision making. Given the diversity of the hematological field, the approach to measurement needs to be tailored for each specific situation. The importance of PROs in hematologic diseases has been highlighted in a number of international recommendations. In addition, new perspectives in the regulatory field will enhance the inclusion of PRO endpoints in clinical trials in hematology, allowing the voice of the patients with hematologic diseases to be taken into greater consideration in the development of new drugs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. e01505-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. S. Jumani ◽  
K. Bessoff ◽  
M. S. Love ◽  
P. Miller ◽  
E. E. Stebbins ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTCryptosporidiosis causes life-threatening diarrhea in children under the age of 5 years and prolonged diarrhea in immunodeficient people, especially AIDS patients. The standard of care, nitazoxanide, is modestly effective in children and ineffective in immunocompromised individuals. In addition to the need for new drugs, better knowledge of drug properties that drivein vivoefficacy is needed to facilitate drug development. We report the identification of a piperazine-based lead compound forCryptosporidiumdrug development, MMV665917, and a new pharmacodynamic method used for its characterization. The identification of MMV665917 from the Medicines for Malaria Venture Malaria Box was followed by dose-response studies,in vitrotoxicity studies, and structure-activity relationship studies using commercial analogues. The potency of this compound againstCryptosporidium parvumIowa and field isolates was comparable to that againstCryptosporidium hominis. Furthermore, unlike nitazoxanide, clofazimine, and paromomycin, MMV665917 appeared to be curative in a NOD SCID gamma mouse model of chronic cryptosporidiosis. MMV665917 was also efficacious in a gamma interferon knockout mouse model of acute cryptosporidiosis. To determine if efficacy in this mouse model of chronic infection might relate to whether compounds are parasiticidal or parasitistatic forC. parvum, we developed a novelin vitroparasite persistence assay. This assay suggested that MMV665917 was parasiticidal, unlike nitazoxanide, clofazimine, and paromomycin. The assay also enabled determination of the concentration of the compound required to maximize the rate of parasite elimination. This time-kill assay can be used to prioritize early-stageCryptosporidiumdrug leads and may aid in planningin vivoefficacy experiments. Collectively, these results identify MMV665917 as a promising lead and establish a new method for characterizing potential anticryptosporidial agents.


2014 ◽  
Vol 115 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahnaz Maddah ◽  
Kevin Loewke

A promising application of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is the generation of patient-specific cardiomyocytes (CMs), which can be used for drug development and safety testing related to cardiovascular health. iPSC-derived CMs can be used for preclinical testing of new drugs that may cause drug-induced arrhythmia or long QT syndrome, as well as post-market safety testing of existing drugs. The measurement of QT interval for iPSC-derived CMs is commonly analyzed using electrophysiological potentials captured by a micro-electrode array (MEA). While such systems are the current standard for characterization, they can be expensive and low-throughput, require high cell plating density, and due to the direct contact between cells and electrodes, may cause undesirable cellular response. Here, we present a new method to non-invasively measure the QT-interval in iPSC-derived CMs using video microscopy and computer vision analysis. Our algorithms can reliably and automatically extract beating signal characteristics such as frequency, irregularity, and duration through image analysis of cardiomyocyte motion. Through a correlative study with MEA, we demonstrate that a non-invasive measurement of QT interval can be derived from the duration of visible cellular motion that occurs during contraction and relaxation. We also show that our system can accurately characterize the cellular response from the addition of compounds known to modulate beating frequency and irregularity. Our measurement technique is robust, automated, and requires no physical or chemical contact with the cells, making it ideal for cardiovascular drug development and cardiotoxicity testing.


Author(s):  
Maryam Hamzeh-Mivehroud ◽  
Babak Sokouti ◽  
Siavoush Dastmalchi

The need for the development of new drugs to combat existing and newly identified conditions is unavoidable. One of the important tools used in the advanced drug development pipeline is computer-aided drug design. Traditionally, to find a drug many ligands were synthesized and evaluated for their effectiveness using suitable bioassays and if all other drug-likeness features were met, the candidate(s) would possibly reach the market. Although this approach is still in use in advanced format, computational methods are an indispensable component of modern drug development projects. One of the methods used from very early days of rationalizing the drug design approaches is Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR). This chapter overviews QSAR modeling steps by introducing molecular descriptors, mathematical model development for relating biological activities to molecular structures, and model validation. At the end, several successful cases where QSAR studies were used extensively are presented.


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