Translational Safety Biomarkers in Early Safety Assessment
The Drug Safety Executive CouncilTM (DSEC) hosted a webinar last month entitled Translational Safety Biomarkers in Early Safety Assessment. The recording is available here. During the webinar we presented some findings from a recent research study, conducted by Cambridge Healthtech AssociatesTM (CHA), on issues pertaining to the use of translational biomarkers in early drug safety assessment. In addition, panelists addressed the following questions:
• What is the current state of pharmaceutical and biotech companies employing biomarkers in early drug development?
• How close is the industry from regularly applying in vitro and/or in vivo biomarkers to assess early-stage safety and efficacy?
• What translational safety biomarkers are most commonly used and trusted today?
• What emerging technologies are showing promise?
• What is the shortest path to adoption of these technologies?
• What hurdles currently exist that impede regular use of these tools?
Audience poll questions during the webinar yielded some interesting results…
Q1: When you refer to a biomarker, do you most often mean?Gene expression up/down regulation – 17%
Protein or peptide – 66%
Metabolite – 17%
Q2: How often do you employ non-FDA certified/validated biomarkers to assess the safety of therapeutics in early development?Never – 13%
Sometimes – 33%
Only for target assessment – 15%
It depends – 40%
Q3: Which tests does your company regularly run in early development?Prediction software (e.g. DEREK) – 20%
High-Content Cell Health parameters – 25%
Off-target screening (e.g. CEREP) – 55%
Q4: How many new biomarker-type technologies (safety/efficacy) has your company evaluated in the past 12 months?1-2 – 48%
3-4 – 27%
5 or more – 25%
If you are working with biomarkers and would like to learn how Cambridge Healthtech Associates (CHA) can help, please contact Dawn Van Dam (General Manager, CHA).