Pharmacometric Modeling and Simulation Is Essential to Pediatric Clinical Pharmacology

Pediatric clinical pharmacology now encompasses a wide range of activities, including drug pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeling and simulation, also known as pharmacometrics. Pediatric clinical pharmacologists may be physicians but are more likely to be pharmacists or PhD scientists, and pediatric clinical pharmacology today is largely a research specialty rather than a subspecialty for direct patient care. Pharmacometrics, including "top-down" population modeling and "bottom-up" physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling, has become an indispensable tool for pharmaceutical industry scientists, government regulators, academic researchers, and even a handful of patient-oriented practitioners. This review summarizes the application of pharmacometrics within each of these domains and predicts future trends of further applications across the spectrum of pediatric clinical pharmacology from drug development to patient care.