Posted on April 21st, 2020 by Olivier Barberan in COVID-19
Currently there is no
miracle drug out there to cure COVID-19 [1]. Drugs such as the anti-malarial
hydroxychloroquine have shown to be helpful based on “anecdotal evidence” [2]. However,
scientists are still debating its efficacy, and some have warned of the dangers
of authorizing the use of such drugs too quickly in the absence of wider
studies. The side effects can be severe – especially in the case of overdose.
Much more research is needed, but time is short, and the use of model
simulations based on patient specifics and for diverse candidate drugs could be
a game changer.
Elsevier’s PharmaPendium
supplies critical data for personalized modelling
That is why Elsevier is excited to announce our collaboration with ExactCure [3], a personalized medicine software startup that uses AI technology to reduce medication errors. Using access to PharmaPendium data, which includes searchable FDA/EMA drug approval documents, as well as pharmacokinetic and efficacy data, ExactCure is developing personalized model simulations that will provide information to physicians to improve the dosing of COVID-19 related therapies.
For this collaboration, PharmaPendium is providing ExactCure with pharmacokinetic information for approximately 20 approved drugs that have been widely cited in the literature and the news, such as Hydroxychloroquine, Chloroquine, Lopinavir/Ritonavir and Azithromycin, including their regulatory-approval datasets. ExactCure will use this data to build drug-specific exposure models that allow the prediction of pharmacokinetic properties (e.g. Cmax, AUC, Tmax etc).
The first step is to
build a simulation based on the patient age, weight, drug dosage, dosing time
and end-time, resulting in a personalized therapeutic window between efficiency
and over-exposure. This could potentially reduce the number of adverse drug
events. Furthermore, the simulation will be enriched by adding more patient
parameters, such as renal status, which is also a critical factor for many
severe patients.
“We have been working
with a university hospital in the south of France, to provide the clinical
pharmacologist and pharmacist the simulation-based suggestions,” says Fabien
Astic, co-founder of ExactCure, “so that they can quickly adapt their treatment
decisions for a safer and more efficient use of these promising drugs, that
currently still under investigation, could potentially be critical and
life-saving for many coronavirus patients.”
Collaborating to combat a pandemic
As the pandemic
deepens, hundreds of clinical trials have been set up to test existing
medications against COVID-19. In response to this, we at Elsevier have taken
our work further by sharing PharmaPendium data to support ExactCure in building
the “digital twin” that simulates in-silico the efficacy and interactions of
drugs in the body of a patient based on their personal characteristics. This
can be tremendously helpful for the clinical pharmacologists and frontline
doctors in the development of safe and effective treatment, and we’re looking
forward to continuing this work with ExactCure to help reduce the impact of
this global pandemic.
If you are interested in this project and would like to learn more about it, feel free to get in touch with Thomas Vargues.
References:
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/28/coronavirus-cure-fact-check-hydroxychloroquine-trump
[3] https://www.exactcure.com/
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