DRUG DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT

WEEK 14 and 15
Drug Research for Elderly

Clarriz Anne D. Locquiao, RPh.

Assistant Instructor, Department of Pharmacy
DRUG
RESEARCH FOR
ELDERLY
ELDERLY
• Individuals belonging to the
age group 60 years and over
• The aging process is the major
risk factor underlying disease
and disability in developed
nations
• Older people respond
differently to therapies
developed for younger adults
EFFECTS OF AGING ON
HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY
• 4 Main Domains / Processes :
• 1. Body composition
• 2. Balance between energy
availability and energy
demand
• 3. Signaling networks that
maintain homeostasis
• 4. Neurodegeneration
Consequences of Aging Process:
The Aging Phenotype and Frailty

• Four Main Processes Are Important for Clinical Practice:

• 1. Ineffective or incomplete homeostatic response to stress
• 2. Multiple coexisting diseases and polypharmacy
• 3. Physical disability
• 4. Geriatric syndromes
FRAILTY

• a physiologic syndrome that is

characterized by decreased
reserve and diminished resistance
to stressors, that results from
cumulative decline across multiple
physiologic systems, and that
causes vulnerability to adverse
outcomes and a high risk of death.
UNDERREPRESENTATION • Due to pharmacokinetic and
OF THE ELDERLY IN pharmacodynamic changes with aging, the
CLINICAL TRIALS presence of multimorbidity, and an increased
prevalence of drug–drug and drug–disease
interactions, this high drug consumption in
older people is accompanied by an increased
susceptibility to adverse drug events (ADEs).
 UNDERREPRESENTATION OF THE
ELDERLY IN CLINICAL TRIALS
Assessing whether a drug is safe and
effective for use by elderly persons
requires that a sufficient number of elderly
persons be included in clinical drug trials.
“Drugs should be studied in all age
groups, including the elderly, for
which they will have significant
utility. Patients entering clinical trials
should be reasonably representative
of the population that will be later
treated by the drug.”
 Barriers and
Solutions to
Participation in
Randomised
Controlled Trials for
Frail Older People