COVID-19 Pharmacology Online Resource Centre Launched

Certara has announced that it has launched the COVID-19 Pharmacology Resource Center to help advance therapeutics for COVID-19. The Centre is an online resource that unites experts across the globe in accelerating efforts in the fight against COVID-19 by providing pharmacology simulation tools and a forum for scientific exchange. The Centre emphasises the importance of incorporating clinical pharmacology and translational medicine principles to optimise dosing in clinical studies.

The Centre, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is designed to aid scientists in determining the optimal dose of therapeutics that are being evaluated in COVID-19 clinical studies, such as hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir. Dosing is a critical decision in testing potential therapeutics for COVID-19 because drugs affect patients differently. The dose has to be high enough to be effective but low enough to avoid toxic side effects and not waste critically needed drugs. The Centre features computer simulation tools that are updated with emerging data and include patient factors such as body mass index and lung tissue concentration. Using these tools to help determine the optimal dose will lead to faster, more efficient clinical trials in the search for COVID-19 therapies.

“We are facing an unprecedented, global, public-health crisis which traditional drug development cannot combat fast enough,” said Dr Craig Rayner, President, Integrated Drug Development at Certara. “In order to go faster, we have to work smarter. By integrating science, technology and worldwide collaboration, we can design more efficient clinical trials that accelerate the development of therapeutics for COVID-19.”

The Centre also provides a platform to facilitate the exchange of current and emerging information to help design well-controlled clinical trials. The Centre invites companies, academic institutions, healthcare organisations, governments, and nonprofits to join in its mission, collaborate in the development of computer models and participate in scientific discourse – asking questions, finding answers, and generating ideas in the global, life-sciences community.

“The COVID-19 Pharmacology Resource Centre will contribute to more efficient drug development through platform tools, collaboration and coordination, which are critical elements in the challenges we face today,” said Dan Hartman, Director, Integrated Development, at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Through the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, which provides fast and flexible funding for research, and this Centre, we are building out the ecosystem to move forward scientifically-proven drugs as fast as possible.”

In addition to launching the COVID-19 Pharmacology Resource Centre, Certara is also participating in the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, funded by the Gates Foundation, Wellcome, Mastercard and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to address the COVID-19 pandemic on a worldwide scale. Certara is applying its expertise in clinical pharmacology and regulatory strategy to support stage-gate decisions, development strategies, trial designs and dosing optimisation for COVID-19.

More information online