Perspectives on the past, present, and future of pharmacometrics

Abstract

In October 1966, the futuristic television show Star Trek aired an episode called "Miri" in which the crew of the starship Enterprise became trapped on a planet in the middle of a viral pandemic. The ship's doctor, clearly well trained in medical chemistry, drug delivery, and biopharmaceutics, quickly developed a remedy. However, the science officer was not able to access the ships computer to conduct the necessary simulations to find a safe and effective dose. They were forced to test possible doses using a trial and error approach, nearly poisoning a crew member in the process. Unknowingly, the writers of this episode correctly predicted the important place that pharmacometrics would eventually assume in drug development.Pharmacometrics is the use of mathematical models to describe and predict drug response. It is now an integral part of Phase 1, 2, and 3 data analysis and an important methodology for preclinical and postmarketing trials. As stated by Gobburu 1 in his insightful commentary