The Strongest Rope: Early PK-PD Modeling

By Ric Slauter, PhD, DABT, Senior Director of Drug Metabolism/Pharmacokinetics and Senior Principal Study Director, MPI Research

The strongest rope is one made of multiple cords woven tightly together. Likewise, applying the closely associated tools of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics early in drug development can lift the best candidates above the also-rans.

While pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) have a strong relationship, they’ve been approached separately in the past: PK at the preclinical discovery phase, helping narrow the number of molecules being evaluated; and PD as an interesting aside for describing the physiological response to a compound. Nowadays, we can create a mathematical model that describes the time it takes for a compound to appear and then vanish from an organism and how that timeline correlates with the body’s responses (PD).