Surge In Pharmacometrics
Demand Leads to New Master's Program
Corinne Marasco
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The University of Buffalo (UB) has announced
the development of the nation's first master's
degree program in pharmaceutics with a focus in
pharmacometrics, a new field that fuses pharmacologic
studies with computational and statistical methods
of data analysis at the university's School of
Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
What is Pharmacometrics?
Pharmacometrics is a new field that merges computational
approaches (mathematical models) with pharmacodynamics
(e.g. drug efficacy and potency) and pharmacokinetics
(drug absorption, distribution, and metabolism).
It is useful for optimizing drug development and
therapeutics in both the pre-clinical and clinical
stages of drug discovery. Much of the data produced
in pre-clinical and clinical trials now is generated
through computationally intensive tools such as
bioinformatics.
According to William J. Jusko, professor of pharmaceutical
sciences and founder of the program, "Pharmacometrics
lies at the heart of what drug companies do, collecting
data from animals, normal volunteers and patients,
quantifying it and then being able to determine
what those data mean for optimizing drug efficacy
and minimizing toxicity."
What Do People Trained in Pharmacometrics Do?
According to Jusko, pharmacometrics, which requires
proficiency in mathematical, computational and
statistical methods, as well as in pharmacokinetic
and pharmacodynamic modeling, involves interpreting
diverse types of data relating to the disposition
and effects of a particular drug, often in large
populations of patients, on the order of hundreds
or even thousands.
He noted that although intensive and detailed
studies of small groups of individual patients
(groups as small as from 12 to 20) still provide
the most complete picture of a drug's essential
properties, the much larger studies provide important
information as well.
"These population studies involve taking
a small amount of information from a large number
of patients - hundreds or even thousands - and
summarizing the main factors that affect their
exposures and responses to a drug," he said.
"The question they are designed to answer
is, what are any special characteristics that
show up when a particular drug is taken by the
broad patient population for whom it is being
designed?"
Population studies are designed to answer that
question based on just one or two measurements,
say, of the blood concentration of a drug.
Individuals skilled in pharmacometrics know how
to properly analyze and interpret those data to
determine, for example, whether or not a particular
drug is metabolized differently by one or another
race, ethnicity, gender, age group (young, elderly)
or those taking other drugs.
Industrial Demand
Drug discovery and development is time consuming
and expensive. The Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) reported that
in 2001,
research-based pharmaceutical companies spent
approximately $30.5 billion in R&D, 36% of
which was allocated to pre-clinical functions:
synthesis and extraction (10%), screening and
testing (14.2%), toxicology and safety testing
(4.5%), and dosage formulation and stability (7.3%).
According to Lisa Benincosa, director of Clinical
PK/PD (pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics) at Pfizer
Global R&D, in recent years, more attention
is being directed toward the role of modeling
and simulation in drug development. Presentations
at national and international conferences have
includes examples of the value of integrating
these methodologies to optimize clinical trials,
leading to greater efficiency (i.e., decreased
cost and time to market new drug products).
"Many companies have begun to recruit specifically
in this area in order to leverage these methodologies
as part of their drug development process,"
said Benincosa.
Arturo G. Porras of Merck concurs. "Over
the last few years, regulatory agencies have become
substantially more interested in pharmacokinetic
and pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) correlations on new
drug applications. This increase in interest has
taken place both for individual and population
correlations. Correspondingly, the workload in
these areas has increased substantially."
"Enthusiasm for PK/PD-driven clinical trial
design has fueled internal demand for this type
of work," he said. "Traditionally, these
efforts would be carried out by the pharmacokineticists
in the group. Biopharmaceutics people, however,
are not necessarily trained in PK/PD correlations
or on modeling, thus providing a niche for people
with this kind of expertise." Porras noted
that the interest in PK/PD has been steadily on
the rise for the last five to ten years.
This new program focus comes just in time to
meet an explosion of demand in the pharmaceutical
industry. "Because of skyrocketing demand,
this area of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic
pharmacometrics offers some of the highest entry-level
salaries in the entire pharmaceutical industry,"
said Jusko. "Entry-level pharmaceutical scientists
with a pharmacometrics background are being hired
for as much as $80,000 per year and, because companies
want to retain these people, pay raises tend to
be generous."
UB is recognized as the international leader
in PK and PD. Emeritus professor Gerhard Levy
is considered the father of PK and PD and was
instrumental in introducing PK into the clinical
arena.
The new master's degree focus fuses the relevant
courses at UB into an intensive program for pharmacometrics,
one that most students will be able to complete
in just one year. Students in this new program
will also benefit from access to the state-of-the-art
Buffalo
Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics.
Applicants should be interested in the computational
aspects of pharmaceutical research and should
have at least a bachelor's degree in pharmaceutics,
pharmacy, pharmacology, biology, chemistry, biochemistry,
mathematics, statistics or another suitable discipline.
Work and computer experience in a research or
clinical laboratory is a plus.
Corinne Marasco is Content Manager of JobSpectrum.org.
Related Reading
Learn
more about the new M.S. focus in pharmacometrics
offered by the University of Buffalo.
The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists
has a section
dedicated to Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics
and Drug Metabolism.
Pharmacogenomics examines the genetic basis for
individual variations in response to therapeutics.
"Pharmacogenomics: Changing the health care
paradigm" published in the July 2001 issue
of Modern
Drug Discovery examines this field in detail.
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