RE: NONMEM and identification of drug-drug interactions

From: "Dr Ziad Hussein" <ziadh@fs1.pa.man.ac.uk> Subject: RE: NONMEM and identification of drug-drug interactions Date: 19 Dec 1997 07:17:47 -0500 The approach of grouping drugs by class (e.g., beta blockers) when looking at drug-drug interaction in a population PK/PD analysis is becoming a common practice by those of us who perform such analysis. The reason behind the grouping is simply that there might be few drugs in a class and the number of patients receiving each drug is too small to examine the effect of each drug individually. Although looking at drug-drug interaction by class of drugs is a better approach than looking at nothing we have to be careful about it. There might be a drug in the class that might significantly interact (statistically and/or clinically) with the drug of interest. However, because the number of patients receiving this particular drug was small it was pooled/grouped with others from the same class and consequently the effect will diluted. Regards, Dr Ziad Hussein Centre for Applied Pharmacokinetic Research School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences The University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL United Kingdom