Cytel Blog

 Quantitative pharmacology encompasses the many strategic advantages of using complex mathematical models to understand biochemical relationships that ultimately improve clinical decision-making. This includes pharmacometric modeling, familiar to those who have used pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) modeling to improve dosage decisions, and the extension of such models to the performance of meta-analyses, the construction of decision rules, and other uses involving a broad array of cases. In this blog we summarize some key areas of opportunity. 

QPP remains at the heart of model based drug development. Short for Quantitative Pharmacology & Pharmacometrics, it refers to several types of quantitative modeling including meta-analysis, PK/PD, statistical modeling and the modeling of go-no-go decision rules. Cytel’s expert Quantitative Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics group delivers high quality solutions to help our customers get those decisions right.

In this blog we talk to Tina who lives in Stonington, Connecticut, to find out more about her career path, current role at Cytel, and her interests outside of work.

We have written on the blog in the past about the value that a statistical consultant can bring to your team, and to the overall clinical development process. Statistical consultants can be instrumental to the success of your development program, providing a variety of input from creating innovative trial designs that improve information quality and efficiency, to supporting regulatory interactions.

Cytel data scientists apply advanced statistical techniques including predictive modelling of biological processes and drug interactions to unlock the potential of big data.

In this blog from our Career Perspectives series, we talk to Andrea Hita, at Data Scientist at Cytel, to find out more about her career path, her current role at Cytel and her interests outside of work.

The  Cytel YouTube Channel hosts a wealth of video presentations from Cytel experts as well as external industry and academic speakers about various aspects of clinical trial designs and their implementation.  In this blog, we've gathered 6 popular resources from the channel on topics from quantitative decision-making through to overcoming challenges in management of oncology trials. Read on to learn more and access the videos. 

 At the Chief Medical Officer Summit earlier this year, Cytel's Director of Quantitative Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics Cecilia Fosser, and Senior Director, Business Development, Chuck Gelb presented on how model-informed drug development (MIDD) techniques can improve decision-making and Probability of Success ( PoS) of clinical trial programs.  In this blog, we share some highlights and the informative10-minute video replay of their talk which includes a modeling and simulation case study. 

Last month was the eighth American Conference on Pharmacometrics (ACoP8) in Florida, a key event on the calendar for Cytel’s Quantitative Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics subject matter experts.

Cytel was delighted to contribute to the event this year and present two posters. This was excellent opportunity to share our knowledge and innovative research, alongside networking with likeminded industry professionals.  

Model-informed drug development has been defined by Richard Lalonde ( Lalonde, 2007) (1) as “Development and application of pharmaco-statistical models of drug efficacy and safety from preclinical and clinical data to improve drug development knowledge management and decision-making”. It has  been identified by the FDA as an important way to help reduce attrition and uncertainty in drug development.
In a recent FDA Voice article,(2) FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb noted the critical role which modeling and simulation can play in making clinical development more efficient.

He commented that:
“FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) is currently using modeling and simulation to predict clinical outcomes, inform clinical trial designs, support evidence of effectiveness, optimize dosing, predict product safety, and evaluate potential adverse event mechanisms. We’ll be putting out additional, updated guidance on how aspects of these in silico tools can be advanced and incorporated into different aspects of drug development.”

In this blog, we share a new Cytel infographic highlighting 4 key questions a sponsor can explore to apply these approaches within their development programs.