Method to evaluate the systemic exposure in toxicological and pharmacological studies

A method of determining the exposure of an individual and its precision within the sample of individuals given a pharmacological substance administered according to a given protocol by determining the area under the concentration-time curve, characterised in that the area under the individual concentration-time curve is estimated by the steps of:

• obtaining measurements of the drug concentrations in each of the subjects at any time during the study, independently from the time when measurements of the drug concentration level in the other subjects are being taken;
• building a hierarchical stochastic model composed of the population and of the individual levels;
• determining the posterior probability distribution of the individual AUC from the sample data.

A computer program comprised of computer code means for estimating the average exposure within a population of subjects to a pharmacological substance, administered according to a given protocol, by estimating the area under the concentration curve (AUC), the computer code means being comprised of means to:

• record measurements of the drug concentrations in each of the subjects at any time during the study, independently from the time when measurements of the drug concentration level in the other subjects are being taken;
• build a hierarchical stochastic model composed of the population and of the individual levels;
• determine the posterior probability distribution of the average AUC from the sample data and hence the average population AUC.