Until the 1990s, it was generally accepted that medicines were first developed for adults and their use in children was investigated later, if at all. One of the main tasks of hospital pharmacies was the manufacturing of child-appropriate formulations in a more or less makeshift way. The first change came in 1997 with U.S. legislation that rewarded manufacturers to do voluntary pediatric research. Ten years later, the European Union passed legislation that required manufacturers to discuss all pediatric aspects, including formulations, with the regulatory authorities as a condition of starting the registration procedure. In consequence, manufacturers must now cover all age groups, including the youngest ones. So far, pediatric formulations were more a focus for academic researchers. Through the changed regulatory environment, there is now a sudden high commercial demand for age-appropriate formulations. This book begins by highlighting the anatomical, physiological and developmental differences between adults and children of different ages. It goes on to review the existing technologies and attempts to draw a roadmap to better, innovative formulations, in particular for oral administration. The regulatory, clinical, ethical and pharmaceutical framework is also addressed.

This reference has served an important and continuing need for evidence–based “recipes” in extemporaneous formulations. It is the go-to resource for pharmacists treating patients who require any of the 80% of medications that are not commercially available in appropriate forms or dosages for pediatric, geriatric, or other special populations. The third edition will include 39 new formulations.

A range of new and innovative tools used for preformulation and formulation of medicines help optimize pharmaceutical development projects. Such tools also assist with the performance evaluation of the pharmaceutical process, allowing any potential gaps to be identified. These tools can be applied in both basic research and industrial environment. Formulation tools for pharmaceutical development considers these key research and industrial tools. Nine chapters by leading contributors cover: Artificial neural networks technology to model, understand, and optimize drug formulations; ME_expert 2.0: a heuristic decision support system for microemulsions formulation development; Expert system for the development and formulation of push-pull osmotic pump tablets containing poorly water-soluble drugs; SeDeM Diagram: an expert system for preformulation, characterization and optimization of tables obtained by direct compression; New SeDeM-ODT expert system: an expert system for formulation of orodispersible tablets obtained by direct compression; and 3D-cellular automata in computer-aided design of pharmaceutical formulations: mathematical concept and F-CAD software.

This comprehensive volume provides an update on the current state of pharmacometrics in drug development. It consists of nineteen chapters all written by leading scientists from the pharmaceutical industry, regulatory agencies and academia. After an introduction of the basic pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic concepts of pharmacometrics in drug development, the book presents numerous examples of specific applications that utilize pharmacometrics with modeling and simulations over a variety of therapeutic areas, including pediatrics, diabetes, obesity, infections, psychiatrics, Alzheimer’s disease, and dermatology, among others. The examples illustrate how results from all phases of drug development can be integrated in a more timely and cost-effective process. Applying pharmacometric decision tools during drug development can allow objective, data-based decision making. At the same time, the process can identify redundant or unnecessary experiments as well as some costly clinical trials that can be avoided. In addition to cost saving by expedited development of successful drug candidates, pharmacometrics has an important economic impact in drug product selection. Unsuccessful drug candidates can be identified early and discontinued without expending efforts required for additional studies and allocating limited resources. Hence, pharmacometric modeling and simulation has become a powerful tool to bring new and better medications to the patient at a faster pace and with greater probability of success.

The development of paediatric medicines can be challenging since this is a different patient population with specific needs. A medicine designed for use in paediatric patients must consider the following aspects: patient population variability; the need for dose flexibility; route of administration; patient compliance; excipient tolerability. For example, the toxicity of excipients may differ in children compared to adults and children have different taste preferences. Globally, about 75% of drugs do not carry regulatory approval for use in children; worldwide, many medications prescribed for the treatment of paediatric diseases are used off-label, and less than 20% of package inserts have sufficient information for treating children. This book provides an update on both state-of-the-art methodology and operational challenges in paediatric formulation design and development. It aims at re-evaluating what is needed for more progress in the design and development of age-appropriate treatments for paediatric diseases, focusing on: formulation development; drug delivery design; efficacy, safety, and tolerability of drugs and excipients.

In recent years, high prices of pharmaceutical products have posed challenges in high- and low-income countries alike. In many instances, high prices of pharmaceutical products have led to significant financial hardship for individuals and negatively impacted on healthcare systems' ability to provide population-wide access to essential medicines. Pharmaceutical pricing policies need to be carefully planned, carried out, and regularly checked and revised according to changing conditions. Strong, well-thought-out policies can guide well-informed and balanced decisions to achieve affordable access to essential health products. This guideline replaces the 2015 WHO guideline on country pharmaceutical pricing policies, revised to reflect the growing body of literature since the last evidence review in 2010. This update also recognizes country experiences in managing the prices of pharmaceutical products.