Advanced Techniques for the Optimal Design of Experiments in Pharmacokinetics

This chapter discusses how model-based design of experiments (MBDoE) techniques may be instrumental to the model development and identification effort in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. After introducing the formal MBDoE framework, two case studies will be discussed to show how the methodology can be implemented, and to illustrate the benefits in terms of parametric estimation. The first case study considers a model describing in vitro bacterial growth and killing, whereas the second one focuses on a physiological description of the von Willebrand disease. The effectiveness of the MBDoE approach will be demonstrated through a comparison with standard pharmacological experiments and clinical tests.