Systems modelling in the pharmaceutical industry

Carmen Pin (AstraZeneca)
Systems modelling in the pharmaceutical industry

Keynote Lecture, Friday June 9th, 2023, 09:30-11:00

Abstract: Quantitative approaches are essential to identify and select efficacious drug candidates maximizing patients’ safety. Pharmacokinetics-pharmacodynamics (PK-PD) models are frequently used to describe changes of both efficacious and safety endpoints responding to changes in drug concentration over time. These models are highly empirical and often developed using clinical datasets, therefore, their impact on early clinical drug development is limited. Modern drug safety assessment strategies aim to integrate in-vitro experimental methods and mechanistic modelling approaches to increase patient safety while reducing drug development costs. Translational strategies require the integration of the drug effect, quantified in in-vitro settings, into modelling frameworks suitable to describe the dynamic interaction of multiple organic processes in patients responding to the drug challenge. We will discuss the development of systems modelling approaches and their application at earlier stages of the drug development pipeline to support dose schedule guidance, trial optimization and decision‐making.

Biosketch: Dr Carmen Pin is a senior director in the Systems Medicine team of the Clinical Pharmacology Safety Sciences unit at AstraZeneca in Cambridge, UK. Prior to joining AstraZeneca in 2018, she led the computational gastrointestinal (GI) biology group at the Quadram Institute Bioscience (Norwich, UK). She studied Veterinary Medicine, earned her PhD in Veterinary Science and later took full undergraduate degrees in Statistics (BSc) and Mathematical Statistics (MSc). Carmen has co-authored numerous scientific articles and led some substantial scientific research projects funded by the EU and BBSRC-UK.