Quantitative Systems Pharmacology: An Exemplar Model-Building Workflow With Applications in Cardiovascular, Metabolic, and Oncology Drug Development

CPT Pharmacometrics Syst Pharmacol. 2019 Jun;8(6):380-395. doi: 10.1002/psp4.12426. Epub 2019 Jun 11.

Abstract

Quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP), a mechanistically oriented form of drug and disease modeling, seeks to address a diverse set of problems in the discovery and development of therapies. These problems bring a considerable amount of variability and uncertainty inherent in the nonclinical and clinical data. Likewise, the available modeling techniques and related software tools are manifold. Appropriately, the development, qualification, application, and impact of QSP models have been similarly varied. In this review, we describe the progressive maturation of a QSP modeling workflow: a necessary step for the efficient, reproducible development and qualification of QSP models, which themselves are highly iterative and evolutive. Furthermore, we describe three applications of QSP to impact drug development; one supporting new indications for an approved antidiabetic clinical asset through mechanistic hypothesis generation, one highlighting efficacy and safety differentiation within the sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor drug class, and one enabling rational selection of immuno-oncology drug combinations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Drug Development
  • Humans
  • Hypoglycemic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Pharmacology, Clinical
  • Sodium-Glucose Transporter 2 Inhibitors / pharmacology*
  • Software
  • Systems Biology / methods*
  • Workflow

Substances

  • Hypoglycemic Agents
  • Sodium-Glucose Transporter 2 Inhibitors