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Abigail Jacobs

Publications and source records attributed to Abigail Jacobs.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Use of nontraditional animals for evaluation of pharmaceutical products.

Although the International Conference on Harmonization Guideline ICH M3 indicates the use of nonrodents for some studies of pharmaceutical products, the specific nonrodent species is not specified. Dogs are used most frequently; however, there may be reasons why dogs are not the best model for a particular drug. Minipigs are being used increasingly for evaluation of toxicity, especially for dermally applied drugs, and for various efficacy models. Hamsters may be used for the evaluation of intraoral drugs and for carcinogenicity studies. Less commonly, pharmaceutical manufacturers may choose on their own to use marmosets, when a nonhuman primate is considered critical to evaluation, or to use ferrets for specific purposes. When nontraditional species are used, there may be less historical information available and unique issues of their care, and differences in physiology and anatomy and susceptibility to infection need to be understood. Nonmammalian test species, such as zebrafish and Caenorhabditis elegans may be used by drug sponsors in screening assays, but are not yet ready for use in pivotal toxicology studies because of the difficulty in extrapolating to mammalian species. Use of nontraditional animal species may be proposed by a drug sponsor to a reviewing division with supporting data and reasons for using a particular species.

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Prediction of 2-year carcinogenicity study results for pharmaceutical products: how are we doing?

Some have proposed that 2-year carcinogenicity studies may not be necessary if the material is a direct-acting DNA mutagen, induces liver enzymes, causes hyperplasia or toxicity in particular organs, causes cell proliferation, is cytotoxic, causes hormonal perturbations, or if one has QSAR analyses or 'omics information. Safety pharmacology data, pharmacologic activity, metabolism data, and results of 13-week dose ranging studies (with organ weight data, clinical chemistry data, hematologic data, clinical signs and histopathologic findings) were compared with results of 2-year carcinogenicity studies reviewed by the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER)/FDA. The experience with the ICH genetic toxicology battery and alternative carcinogenicity models was also reviewed. It appears that the information available from short-term studies is not currently sufficient to accurately and reliably predict the outcome of long-term carcinogenicity studies.

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Human carcinogenic risk evaluation, Part III: Assessing cancer hazard and risk in human drug development.

Assessing cancer risk for human pharmaceuticals is important because drugs are taken at pharmacologically active doses and often on a chronic basis. Epidemiologic studies on patient populations have limited value because of the long latency period for most cancers and because these studies lack sensitivity. The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration relies on short-term surrogate assays (genetic toxicology studies) to assess risk to patients involved in clinical trials and on rodent carcinogenicity studies to assess cancer risk for drug approval. Unlike some other agencies that typically perform quantitative risk assessments on chemical pollutants or pesticide products, CDER does not perform such quantitative extrapolations. Rather, the evaluation of risk is the result of an integrated assessment of what is known about the drug, and risk is considered in the context of the clinical benefit. Mode of action of carcinogenesis and thresholds for effects are important considerations. The results of carcinogenicity studies of approved products are published in the drug labeling and individual clinicians balance risk and benefit in making prescribing decisions.

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The utility of genetically modified mouse assays for identifying human carcinogens: a basic understanding and path forward. The Alternatives to Carcinogenicity Testing Committee ILSI HESI.

The Alternatives to Carcinogenicity Testing Committee of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) conducted a large-scale, multinational collaborative research program to evaluate several genetically modified mouse assays for assessing the human carcinogenic potential of compounds. The data from this testing program have made an important contribution to the general understanding of how these models can be best applied in hazard identification; however, questions still exist regarding methodology and data interpretation. To address these issues, ILSI HESI hosted a February 2003 workshop on the Utility of Transgenic Assays for Risk Assessment. The purpose of this workshop was to reach an understanding of how data from genetically modified mouse models are viewed by different regulatory bodies in the pharmaceutical sector and, based on this understanding, to identify areas in which more experimental work may be needed to increase the utility of data derived from these assays. In the course of discussions, various data gaps related to model selection and protocol issues were identified. Based on the outcome of the workshop, various studies are proposed to provide data to improve the utility of currently available assays for cancer hazard identification and risk assessment purposes.

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Use of genotoxicity data to support clinical trials or positive genetox findings on a candidate pharmaceutical or impurity .... now what?

Results from carcinogenicity studies are generally not available for drugs until the time of approval. Many people, including healthy volunteers are often exposed to pharmacologically active doses of the drug before carcinogenicity results are available. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research uses results of genetic toxicology studies as a surrogate for carcinogenicity during the drug development phase (clinical trials). A number of issues are considered in deciding whether drugs that give positive results in genetic toxicology studies can be given to subjects in clinical trials. These relate to the drug indication, the target population, duration of treatment, and importance of the drug. In general, single-dose clinical studies are permitted regardless of the genetox results. In situations where a genetic toxicology assay showed a positive result, some review divisions have asked sponsors to perform a Syrian hamster embryo (SHE) cell transformation assay or a p53 carcinogenicity study prior to allowing repeat-dose clinical trials to proceed. This paper discusses alternatives to SHE cell and p53 assays when faced with a positive result in a genetic toxicology assay. In addition, this paper discusses factors to consider when setting limits for genotoxic impurities in drug substances and products.

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