Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
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The current 6-month tuberculosis (TB) therapy is suboptimal with significant side effects and a poor patient compliance problem that frequently selects drug-resistant organisms. The increasing drug-resistant TB problem highlights the need to develop new and more effective drugs. Significant progress has been made recently with several new drug candidates currently in clinical trials. Improved understanding of persister biology and development of persister drugs are likely to be important for developing a more effective therapy.
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The global epidemic of obesity has led to an increased prevalence of chronic diseases and need for pharmacological intervention. However, little is known about the influence of obesity on the drug exposure profile, resulting in few clear dosing guidelines for the obese. Here we present a semi-mechanistic model for lean body weight (LBW) that we believe is sufficiently robust to quantify the influence of body composition on drug clearance, and is therefore an ideal metric for adjusting chronic dosing in the obese.
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Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. · Nov 2007
Access to essential medicines for children: the world health organization's global response.
In many instances medicines are the most cost-effective health-care intervention in saving lives and alleviating the suffering of children in situations of public health concern. The major difference between medicines for adults and medicines for children is that use of medicines in children is much less of an evidence-based process.
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The concept of essential medicines is as relevant to the whole world now as it was for some countries in 1975 when the concept was developed. Basically, the concept is that medicines needed to satisfy the priority health-care needs of a population should be made available at all times to everyone in the population within the context of a functioning health-care system.