Clinical pharmacology is a medical specialty whose practitioners teach, undertake research, frame policy, give information and advice about the actions and proper uses of medicines in humans and implement that knowledge in clinical practice. It involves a combination of several activities: drug discovery and development, training safe prescribers, providing objective and evidence‐based therapeutic information to ethics, regulatory and pricing bodies, supporting patient care in an increasingly subspecialized arena where co‐morbidities, polypharmacy, altered pharmacokinetics and drug interactions are common and developing and contributing to medicines policies for Governments. Clinical pharmacologists must advocate drug quality and they must also advocate for sustainability of the Discipline. However for this they need appropriate clinical service and training support. This Commentary discusses strategies to ensure the Discipline is supported by teaching, training and policy organizations, to communicate the full benefits of clinical pharmacology services, put a monetary value on clinical pharmacology services and to grow the clinical pharmacology workforce to support a growing clinical, academic and regulatory need.
In: Martin , J H , Henry , D , Gray , J , Day , R , Bochner , F , Ferro , A , Pirmohamed , M , Mörike , K & Schwab , M 2015 , ' Achieving the world health organization's vision for clinical pharmacology ' British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology , vol 81 , no. 2 , pp. 223-227 . DOI:10.1111/bcp.12803
Clinical pharmacology is a medical specialty whose practitioners teach, undertake research, frame policy, give information and advice about the actions and proper uses of medicines in humans and implement that knowledge in clinical practice. It involves a combination of several activities: drug discovery and development, training safe prescribers, providing objective and evidence-based therapeutic information to ethics, regulatory and pricing bodies, supporting patient care in an increasingly subspecialized arena where co-morbidities, polypharmacy, altered pharmacokinetics and drug interactions are common and developing and contributing to medicines policies for Governments. Clinical pharmacologists must advocate drug quality and they must also advocate for sustainability of the Discipline. However for this they need appropriate clinical service and training support. This Commentary discusses strategies to ensure the Discipline is supported by teaching, training and policy organizations, to communicate the full benefits of clinical pharmacology services, put amonetary value on clinical pharmacology services and to grow the clinical pharmacology workforce to support a growing clinical, academic and regulatory need.
Background: Mobility is defined as the ability to independently move around the environment and is a key contributor to quality of life, especially in older age. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of mobility as a decisive outcome for the marketing authorisation of drugs by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Methods: Fifteen therapeutic areas which commonly lead to relevant mobility impairments and alter the quantity and/or the quality of walking were selected: two systemic neurological diseases, four conditions primarily affecting exercise capacity, seven musculoskeletal diseases and two conditions representing sensory impairments. European Public Assessment Reports (EPARs) published by the EMA until September 2020 were examined for mobility endpoints included in their 'main studies'. Clinical study registries and primary scientific publications for these studies were also reviewed. Results: Four hundred and eighty-four EPARs yielded 186 relevant documents with 402 'main studies'. The EPARs reported 153 primary and 584 secondary endpoints which considered mobility; 70 different assessment tools (38 patient-reported outcomes, 13 clinician-reported outcomes, 8 performance outcomes and 13 composite endpoints) were used. Only 15.7% of those tools distinctly informed on patients' mobility status. Out of 402, 105 (26.1%) of the 'main studies' did not have any mobility assessment. Furthermore, none of these studies included a digital mobility outcome. Conclusions: For conditions with a high impact on mobility, mobility assessment was given little consideration in the marketing authorisation of drugs by the EMA. Where mobility impairment was considered to be a relevant outcome, questionnaires or composite scores susceptible to reporting biases were predominantly used. ; S.J., M.W., and R.T. are partly supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung Stuttgart. M.W. reports grants from HORIZON2020 IMI No. 820820, during the conduct of the study. D.S. reports grants from HORIZON2020 IMI No. 820820, during the conduct of the study. M.C. reports personal fees from Takeda Pharmaceuticals, during the conduct of the study; personal fees from Takeda Pharmaceuticals, outside the submitted work. J.K. reports grants from HORIZON2020 IMI No. 820820, during the conduct of the study. J.G.A. reports grants from HORIZON2020 IMI No. 820820, and from AstraZeneca, Chiesi, Esteve, outside the submitted work. W.M. receives or received funding from the European Union, the German Federal Ministry of Education of Research, Michael J. Fox Foundation, Robert Bosch Foundation, Neuroalliance, Lundbeck and Janssen. He received speaker honoraria from Abbvie, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Licher MT, Rölke Pharma and UCB, was invited to Advisory Boards of Abbvie, Biogen, Lundbeck and Market Access & Pricing Strategy GmbH, and is an advisory board member of the Critical Path for Parkinson's Consortium. He serves as the co-chair of the MDS Technology Task Force. M.P. reports grants from HORIZON2020 IMI No. 820820, outside the submitted work. M.S. is supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung Stuttgart and reports grants from HORIZON2020 IMI 2 Mobilise D, during the conduct of the study, and grants and non-financial support from Green Cross WellBeing Co. Ltd., Gilead Sciences Inc., Robert Bosch GmbH, and CORAT Therapeutics GmbH, as well as other from Agena Bioscience GmbH, outside the submitted work. C.B. disclosed consultation from E. Lilly and speaker fees from Amgen, Nutricia and Pfizer reports grants from HORIZON2020 IMI No. 820820, during the conduct of the study.