Dose Finding in Drug Development

When you go to the pharmacy and fill a prescription, have you ever wondered if the dose of the medication is right for you? Can the dose be too low so that the drug will not work? Can the dose be too high that it may cause some potential problem? How do people learn about dosing information? This book answers some of these questions. Dosing information on the drug label is based on discussion and agreement between the pharmaceutical manufacturer and the drug regulatory agency. A drug label is a high level summary of results obtained from many scientific experiments. Scientists with biological, chemical, medical, or statistical background working in the pharmaceutical industry designed and executed these experiments to obtain information to help understand the dosing information. This book introduces the drug development process, the design and analysis of clinical trials. Many of the discussions are based on applications of statistical methods in the design and analysis of dose response studies. Although the book is prepared mainly for statisticians/biostatisticians, it also serves as a useful reference to a variety of professionals working for the pharmaceutical industry. The potential readers include pharmacokienticists, clinical scientists, clinical pharmacologists, pharmacists, project managers, pharmaceutical scientists, clinicians, programmers, data managers, regulatory specialists, and study report writers. This book is also a good reference for professionals working in a drug regulatory environment, for example, the FDA. Scientists and/or reviewers from both U.S. and foreign drug regulatory agencies can benefit greatly from this book. In addition, statistical and medical professionals in academia may find this book helpful in understanding the drug development process and practical concerns in selecting doses for a new drug.