Reviewed by Bernd Meibohm
Over the last decade, pharmacometrics has been an evolving discipline. Groups and scientific specialists in pharmacometrics have been established in industry, government agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration, as well as multiple academic institutions around the globe. Concurrently, there has been a growing demand for pharmacometric analyses and guidance in drug development projects by development teams, project leaders, and management. This journal is a clear manifestation of the growing role and demand for pharmacometrics.
In this highly dynamic environment of an evolving discipline, Schmidt and Derendorf have edited a textbook devoted to the application of pharmacometrics in drug development and applied pharmacotherapy. As a multicontributor textbook, this collection of texts captures a current snapshot of state-of-the-art pharmacometric analyses and applications by utilizing the collective expertise of experienced scientists, investigators, and thought leaders in the field.
After introductory chapters on quantitative pharmacology, physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling, and the role of pharmacometrics in precision medicine, the textbook provides a cross-section of applications in different subpopulations, drug development sections, and therapeutic areas. For the patient subgroups, this includes pediatric patients, renal impairment patients, and obese patients. This is supplemented by a chapter on pharmacometrics in toxicology, with a focus on cardiovascular safety. The final two-thirds of the textbook are focused on applications of pharmacometric principles in therapeutic areas such as pulmonary diseases, psychiatric diseases, metabolic diseases, and dermatology. In addition, infectious diseases have received specific emphasis, with separate chapters on pharmacometric applications in bacterial, viral, and fungal infections as well as tuberculosis.
Overall, Applied Pharmacometrics is a well-crafted collection of up-to-date applications in modeling and simulation that exemplifies the vast applicability of pharmacometric analyses in drug development and applied pharmacotherapy. It continues in the tradition of high scientific quality of the AAPS Advances in the Pharmaceutical Sciences book series and is highly recommended reading for individuals who are interested in learning and exploring the scope of pharmacometric applications in contemporary drug development and therapeutics in the 21st century.