Pharmacology

Pharmacometrics (PM) is an emerging research area defined as “the science that interprets and describes pharmacology in a quantitative fashion to aid efficient drug development and/or regulatory decision”. Over the years, Dr. Nekka’s team has encompassed deep thinking on how to join and enhance emerging worldwide efforts to make mathematical modeling and simulation a complementary language to the usual empirical and clinical methods used in drug discovery and development. This work is part of these sustained efforts to deal with the complex relationship of dose-exposure-effect of drugs.

When patients do not use medications as prescribed, the drugs may lose the ability to treat the disease. However, the impact of variations in patient use is not generally studied during clinical trials. By identifying the reasons for patient non-compliance and individual patient modifications, the team will determine the impact that poor compliance or dosing regimen adjustments have on therapeutic failure. A quantitative analysis of this impact will be developed. Initially, the team will focus on oral chemotherapy where concerns about compliance have become an important issue.