In the ongoing commitment to education and coinciding with the launch of Phoenix 8.1, Certara has introduced a new certification program available through Certara University. The new online accreditation program validates the scientists’ PK/PD data analysis skills using Certara software such as Phoenix WinNonlin and expands their professional reach. I caught up with Ana Henry, […]
Read MoreAuthors: Maria Saluta
Using M&S to Evaluate Oncology Drug Dosing
There are numerous challenges in developing oncology drugs: (1) they are often very toxic which precludes conducting clinical trials in healthy volunteers, (2) the PK of a drug may be altered in cancer patients due to demographic and physiological differences as compared to healthy volunteers, and (3) cancer patients face elevated drug-drug interaction (DDI) risk […]
Read MoreCertara’s Best of the Blog 2017
A selection of short essays from our blog, written to empower our customers with modeling and simulation (M&S) and regulatory writing solutions in order to help them solve the toughest drug development problems. Certara staff contributions range in topic from pharmacometrics to systems biology to the growing importance of regulatory writing and sharing clinical trial results.
Read MoreSurveying the Lay of the Land for Modeling & Simulation for Global Regulatory Submissions
Analogous to how a geologist surveys the “lay of the land” to determine if oil lies underneath, or an investment advisor strives to understand the “lay of the land” to decide how to invest in a turbulent market, sponsors and regulators also need to determine how to best utilize and report modeling and simulation results […]
Read MoreReady, Set, Model! Take PK/PD Analysis to New Heights with Phoenix 8.0
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, has outlined the steps the US FDA will take to implement the 21st Century Cures Act. In outlining the plan, the Commissioner endorses modeling and simulation approaches to increase the efficiency of drug development. Certara has launched Phoenix® 8.0, the latest version of the innovative PK/PD […]
Read MoreUsing Model-informed Drug Development Approaches to Accelerate Orphan Drug Development
Orphan drugs are used to treat rare diseases and disorders. This year marks the 35th anniversary of both the landmark Orphan Drug Act, a law passed by the US FDA that created legal and financial incentives for pharma and biotech to pursue rare disease R&D, and the formation of the National Organization for Rare Disorders […]
Read MoreThe Modernization of Orphan Drug Development
Orphan drugs affect 350,000 people worldwide, including 10% of the US population and 1 in 25 Europeans. Model-informed drug development (MIDD) approaches, such as PBPK and PopPK have been embraced by sponsors and regulators, and play a key role in modernizing and accelerating orphan drug development.
Read MorePredictive Toxicology: Bringing Chemical Risk Assessment into the 21st Century
Traditional toxicology methods, using in vivo animal testing, is an unrealistic approach to predict chemical risk assessment. Mechanistic modeling and simulation tools such as PBPK and QST can expedite toxicological screening, support the prioritization for testing compounds that merit greater study, and reduce unnecessary animal testing.
Read MoreThe Use of Model-informed Precision Dosing to Improve Patient Drug Treatment Outcomes
Precision dosing is a crucial cornerstone of precision medicine that will provide patients the most efficacious medications with minimum probability of adverse events. Model-informed precision dosing, using quantitative modeling and simulation approaches, such as PBPK and NLME, can improve precision dosing in clinical care.
Read MoreA Targeted Approach to Medicine and Dosing—A Necessity for Sustainable Healthcare
President Obama, during his 2015 State of the Union Address, launched the Precision Medicine Initiative “to enable a new era of medicine through research, technology, and policies that empower patients, researchers, and providers to work together toward development of individualized care.” The message given to the American people reinforced the critical need to implement precision medicine into […]
Read MoreHow to Harness Public Clinical Trial Data to Assess Drug Candidates
Publicly available clinical trial data represent an underutilized source of information. If properly extracted and analyzed, the data provide valuable input for facilitating go/no go decisions, performing comparative effectiveness and portfolio evaluations in support of in/out licensing, and optimizing overall drug development decisions, including dose and dosing regimens. Clinical Outcomes Database Explorer, CODEx, is an […]
Read MorePhoenix Modeling Language School: The Semester in Review
Phoenix® WinNonlin® uses Phoenix Modeling Language (PML) to encode pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) models. Although most models can be built using the Phoenix graphical user interface (GUI), some models require custom coding with PML. During the latter part of 2016, Certara’s support team, led by Dr. Bernd Wendt, Director of Training and Support, introduced […]
Read MoreQuantitative Systems Toxicology—Taking the Cue from Aristotle
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” -Aristotle This quote from the great 4th century BCE Greek philosopher and scientist has become the mantra for many endeavors, sectors, organizations, and disciplines. From biology, chemistry, and physics to agriculture, engineering, and business, it is the foundation for synergy. What is the connection between […]
Read MoreWhat are Clinical Trial Outcomes Databases? How and Why You Should Use Them
Publicly available clinical trial data represents an underutilized source of information. If properly extracted and analyzed, they provide valuable information to support drug development decisions. When you think of the volumes of public information and databases that are available to determine, for example, commercial viability of a therapeutic in development, your first inclination is—“great!” But […]
Read MoreNavigating the Path for Pharmacokinetic CDISC Data Preparation
Data heterogeneity is a regulatory reviewer’s nightmare. Some sponsors talk about patient “gender” whereas others list the patient’s “sex.” What about date formats? Do you use the American-style month-day-year format or the European-style day-month-year? Inconsistent data presentation makes both collaborating on drug development projects and reviewing regulatory submissions more difficult. To address this challenge, the […]
Read MoreWhat’s New in Phoenix 7.0!
On September 14, Dr. Nathan Teuscher presented an informative webinar focused on new features and enhancements in Phoenix® 7.0, which was released on August 10. This blog post summarizes the topics discussed during the presentation. Nathan began his presentation with an overview of new features in Phoenix 7.0 including: A new graphics engine for high […]
Read MoreOn the Road Again: Leveraging the Power of Phoenix
Last year during our inaugural Phoenix Roadshow workshop program across the US, Europe and Asia, we gained valuable feedback and ideas from our customers on “All Things Phoenix.” Based on the success of that program, and with new updates and case studies to share with our users, we commenced our 2nd Annual Phoenix Roadshow in […]
Read MoreGet Ready for CDISC-SEND!
Towards the end of 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Japan Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA), will require electronic submissions of certain nonclinical data using the CDISC SEND standard format. Other regulatory agencies, including the European Medical Agency (EMA), Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and China Food and […]
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