STRATEGY
Crucial Decision-making in Drug Development for COVID-19 Modelling and simulation guides
As COVID-19 shutters schools and businesses, stresses hospital systems, and threatens patients’ lives, modelling and simulation is guiding crucial decision-making on the frontlines in the development of drugs and vaccines to battle this pandemic. It is being used to track viral outbreaks, show how preventive measures are helping flatten the curve, determine appropriate doses for on-market drugs being tested off-label against COVID-19, and compare the effectiveness of rapidly emerging therapeutics. Now, it is also helping to select the best vaccines for deployment against the disease. Thomas Kerbusch, Chief Growth Officer, Certara
6
P H A RM A F O C U S A S I A
ISSUE 40 - 2020
M
odelling and simulation has been growing rapidly in impact and is now actively used by biopharmaceutical companies worldwide for drug development and regulatory agencies for review and approval. It aims to integrate information from diverse data sources to help decrease uncertainty and lower failure rates, and develop information that cannot or would not be generated experimentally. Almost all novel drugs use these technologies for drug development.
