The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)- in collaboration with the University of Maryland Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (M-CERSI)- will host a one-day virtual public workshop entitled “Creating a Roadmap to Quantitative Systems Pharmacology-informed Rare Disease Drug Development” on Thursday, May 11, 2023. The workshop will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

The purpose of this workshop is to discuss the potential utility of QSP in rare disease drug development and brainstorm the potential path to address the challenges and facilitate its use. 

This workshop is open to the public with no cost to attend.

There are approximately 7,000 rare diseases. There is a public heath need to develop safe and efficacious drugs to treat these conditions. However, there are many challenges in developing drugs for rare diseases, including the small number of patients available for clinical trials to optimize the dosing regimen and demonstrate safety and efficacy of the drug, inter-individual variation in the course of disease, and a lack of well-characterized biomarkers to inform drug effects. Quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) modeling can mechanistically, quantitatively link a drug candidate’s target, via the pharmacological network, to model and simulate drug responses and the extent of response variability to inform drug development decisions. 

The workshop which is jointly sponsored by the University of Maryland Center for Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (M-CERSI) and the FDA, will be open to the public.

This workshop is supported by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award U01FD005946 with 100 percent funded by FDA/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by FDA/HHS, or the U.S. Government.

Thursday, May 11
10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

 

Welcome & Introduction                                                                     

Welcome & Introductory Remarks

Robert Schuck, PharmD, PhD

Audra Stinchcomb, PhD
Deputy Director, DTPM, OCP, CDER, FDA, Professor, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland

Video Presentation (PDF)

Session 1: RARE DISEASE DRUG DEVELOPMENT NEEDS THAT MAY BE ADDRESSED VIA QSP APPROACHES 

Session Chair: Robert Schuck, PharmD, PhD Deputy Director, DTPM, OCP, CDER, FDA          

Moderator: Valeriu Damian, PhD Senior Director, System Modeling & Translational Biology, Computational Sciences, Medicine Design, R&D, GlaxoSmithKline-Upper Providence

Considerations in Rare Disease Drug Development and How CDER is Accelerating Rare Disease Treatments Kerry Jo Lee, MD Associate Director for Rare Diseases, DRDMG, OND, CDER, FDA

Video | Presentation (PDF)

The Quantitative and the Mechanistic: Strategies to Advance Rare Disease Drug Development through Regulatory Science Issam Zineh, PharmD, MPH, FCP, FCCP Director, OCP, OTS, CDER, FDA

VideoPresentation (PDF)

Supporting Orphan Drug Development with Retrospective Quantitative Natural History Modeling – Conceptual Framework, Opportunities and Limitations Markus Ries, MD, PhD, MHSc, FCP Professor, Pediatric Neurology and Metabolic Medicine, Center for Rare Diseases, Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany VideoPresentation (PDF)
Session 1 Panel Discussion

Issam Zineh, PharmD, MPH, FCP, FCCP Director, OCP, OTS, CDER, FDA

Kerry Jo Lee, MD Associate Director for Rare Diseases, DRDMG, OND, CDER, FDA

Markus Ries, MD, PhD, MHSc, FCP Professor, Pediatric Neurology and Metabolic Medicine, Center for Rare Diseases, Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany

Steven Chang, BS EE, MS EE President & CEO, Immunetrics, Inc.

Hilary Vernon, MD, PhD Associate Professor of Genetic Medicine, Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Robert Schuck, PharmD, PhD Deputy Director, DTPM, OCP, CDER, FDA

Video 

Session 2: OVERVIEW OF QSP AND SUCCESSFUL USES OF QSP IN DRUG DEVELOPMENT                   

Session Chair: Jane Bai, PhD Expert Regulatory Scientist (Systems Pharmacology), DARS, OCP, CDER, FDA               

Moderator: Justin Earp, PhD Lead Pharmacokineticist, DPM, OCP, OTS, CDER, FDA

Challenges and Opportunities for QSP in Drug Development and Regulatory Evaluation Stephan Schmidt, BPharm, PhD, FCP Endowed Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics, Director, Center for Pharmaceutics and Systems Pharmacology, University of Florida

VideoPresentation (PDF)

Development and Application of a Quantitative Systems Pharmacology Model of Tumor Receptor Occupancy to Support New Dosing Regimens for Nivolumab Across Indications Brian J. Schmidt, PhD Executive Director, Head QSP & PBPK Department, Bristol Myers Squibb

VideoPresentation (PDF)

QSP-Model Based Assessment of Mechanistic Similarity of Disease and Response to Olipudase alfa Between Pediatric and Adult Acid Sphingomyelinase Deficiency (ASMD) Patients Susana Zaph, PhD Senior Director, Head of Translational Disease Modeling-Rare & Neuro, Sanofi

VideoPresentation (PDF)  

Session 2 Panel Discussion 

Stephan Schmidt, BPharm, PhD, FCP Endowed Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics Director, Center for Pharmaceutics and Systems Pharmacology, University of Florida

Brian Schmidt, PhD Executive Director, Head QSP & PBPK Department, Bristol Myers Squibb

Susana Zaph, PhD Senior Director, Head of Translational Disease Modeling-Rare & Neuro, Sanofi

Rajanikanth (Raj) Madabushi, PhD Associate Director, Guidance and Scientific Policy, OCP, OTS, CDER, FDA

Christina Friedrich, PhD Chief Engineer, Rosa & Co

Jane Bai, PhD Expert Regulatory Scientist (Systems Pharmacology), DARS, OCP, CDER, FDA

 Video 

Session 3: HOW CAN WE DEVELOP USEFUL QSP MODELS IN RARE DISEASES? 

Session Chair: Audra Stinchcomb, PhD Professor, School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland

Moderator: Cynthia J Musante, PhD Vice President of Scientific Research & Global Head of QSP, Pfizer, Inc

Maximizing the Potential of Digital Twin Technology in Drug Development for Rare Diseases Tina Hernandez-Boussard, PhD, MPH, MS, FACMI Associate Dean for Research; Professor of Medicine, of Biomedical Data Science, of Surgery, and by courtesy Epidemiology and Population Health; Director, Health Informatics, Stanford Center for Clinical and Translational Research, and Education, Stanford School of Medicine

Video Presentation (PDF)

QSP Modeling Evaluates CNS Enzyme Delivery for Different Treatment Modalities for Hunter Syndrome Kapil Gadkar, PhD Staff Scientist, Senior Director, Denali Therapeutics

VideoPresentation (PDF)

What it Will Take to Cross the Valley of Death: Dealing with Biological Heterogeneity and Epistemic Uncertainty with AgentBased Modeling Using an Adaptation of the Principle of Maximal Entropy/Ignorance Gary An, MD, FACS Professor of Surgery and Vice Chair of Surgical Research, Department of Surgery, University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine

VideoPresentation (PDF)  

Session 3 Panel Discussion 

Tina Hernandez-Boussard, PhD, MPH, MS, FACMI Associate Dean for Research; Professor of Medicine, of Biomedical Data Science, of Surgery, and by courtesy Epidemiology and Population Health; Director, Health Informatics, Stanford Center for Clinical and Translational Research, and Education, Stanford School of Medicine

Kapil Gadkar, PhD Staff Scientist, Senior Director, Denali Therapeutics

Gary An, MD, Professor of Surgery and Vice Chair of Surgical Research, Department of Surgery, Jie (Jack) Wang, PhD Hao Zhu, PhD, Mstat University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine

Jie (Jack) Wang, PhD Team Leader, Rare Diseases and Inborn Errors of Metabolism, DTPM, OCP, CDER, FDA

Hao Zhu, PhD, Mstat Division Director, Division of Pharmacometrics, OCP, OTS, CDER, FDA

 Video 

Closing Remarks

Jane Bai, PhD Expert Regulatory Scientist (Systems Pharmacology), DARS, OCP, CDER, FDA

 Video 


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