Individualization of drug dosage--past, present and future

Abstract

The development of drug immunoassays led to the introduction of therapeutic drug monitoring and the use of population pharmacokinetic (PK) methodology to develop guidelines for individualizing drug dosage. Recognition of pharmacodynamic (PD) variability and identification of PK parameters that best correlate with clinical response has occurred in several areas including oncology, infection and immunosuppression. In the future, drugs will be selected to suit the genetic characteristics that determine the likelihood of a response, while individualization of dosage will consider genetic information on drug metabolism.