Supervision & Administration
Wang Gengli, Zhang Dongxia, Zhang Yinhang, Feng Feifei, Zhang Qiao, Jiang Dejian, Zhang Sucai
Objective: By analyzing the information of biopharmaceuticals approved by FDA for marketing in 2013-2023 and combining with practical experience, some suggestions are provided from the aspects of necessity, feasibility and trial design of safety pharmacology study of biopharmaceuticals, in order to provide supports for their entry into clinical trials. Methods: In this paper, 133 applications for biopharmaceuticals licensing approved by FDA during 2013-2023 were summarized, including non-clinical safety pharmacology, pharmacological and toxicological information, adverse reactions in clinical studies and other data. The necessity and feasibility of safety pharmacology tests were discussed by analyzing the reasons for conducting safety pharmacology tests alone, concomitantly with and without conducting safety pharmacology tests, and discussed the concerns of safety pharmacology studies of biopharmaceuticals by analyzing whether there are relevant animal species, target-related risks and key points of core battery tests. Results and Conclusion: Based on the information of biopharmaceuticals approved by FDA for marketing between 2013 and 2023 and the requirements of relevant guidelines on safety pharmacology of biopharmaceuticals, this paper concludes that biopharmaceuticals rely on pharmacological effects, the presence of relevant animal species, target characteristics, indications, and relevant drug market information to determine whether to conduct non-clinical safety pharmacology trials, including conducting them separately, conducting them concurrently, or exempting safety pharmacology studies, and developing a reasonable safety pharmacology trial plan. Safety pharmacology assessments of biopharmaceuticals are often conducted concomitantly with general toxicology studies, and this trend is becoming increasingly apparent. In view of the cost-effectiveness and 3R principles of animal welfare, it is recommended to integrate the safety pharmacology study of biopharmaceuticals into the repeated-dose toxicity study, but attention should be paid to the complexity of study design, including the challenges of animal number, sampling frequency, toxicokinetic blood collection interference and animal acclimation difficulty, to ensure the accurate determination of key indicators such as ECG and blood pressure, so as to ensure the high efficiency of the study.