Certara and the University of Manchester host inaugural model-based personalised drug dosing in healthcare conference

Certara, the global biosimulation technology enabled drug development company, in partnership with the University of Manchester, successfully organised the first-ever healthcare summit on model-based precision dosing on 19–20 May in the UK.

Precision dosing is a key and proactive step toward achieving the goals of precision medicine, a global objective supported by world leaders, including President Obama under the Precision Medicine Initiative.

'Through its modelling and simulation work, Certara has been working toward the goal of precision dosing — providing the right drug dose to maximise therapeutic benefit, while reducing risk for each individual patient,' said Certara Chief Executive Officer Edmundo Muniz, MD, PhD. 'Through this summit and the 15 examples that were presented, which showcased the successful use of modelling and simulation in the hospital research environment, we are confident that precision dosing in healthcare will become mainstream shortly.'

Professor Kay Marshall, Head of the Manchester Pharmacy School and a speaker at the conference, said: 'Everyone is different and this means that they react to drugs in different ways. The emerging precision dosing field harnesses the explosion of genomic data and various markers of bodily functions using mathematical modelling to ensure that individuals get the best possible treatment.'

Speakers from eight countries, representing research institutions, academia, pharmaceutical companies, former regulators and legal authorities spoke at the summit. Sessions were organised around special populations representing the most fragile and complex population cohorts, including oncology, HIV, paediatric, obese, renally impaired, cell transplant, and adolescent psychiatric patients and pregnant women. In addition to demonstrating how modelling and simulation facilitated individualised dosing, the conference focused on linking personalised dosing and its impact on public health.

Certara Chief Scientific Officer Amin Rostami, who also serves as the chair of systems pharmacology at the University of Manchester, said: 'We now understand more fully the sources of variability, the individual characteristics of each patient, which can drive dosing decisions. The successful case studies shared at this summit demonstrate that we are now ready to take the next step toward individualised dosing in everyday healthcare.'