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Updated: Aug 23, 2025
Comprehensive Evaluation of the Effectiveness and Safety of Placenta-Targeted Drug Delivery Using Three Complementary Methods
Published on: September 10, 2018
Systematic evaluation of the pre-eclampsia drugs, dietary supplements and biologicals pipeline using target product
Annie R A McDougall1, Roxanne Hastie2, Maya Goldstein3
1Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Program, Burnet Institute, 85 Commercial Road, Melbourne, VIC, 3004, Australia. annie.mcdougall@burnet.edu.au.
Background:
The Accelerating Innovation for Mothers (AIM) project established a database of candidate medicines in research and development (R&D) between 2000 and 2021 for five pregnancy-related conditions, including pre-eclampsia. In parallel, we published target product profiles (TPPs) that describe optimal characteristics of medicines for use in preventing/treating pre-eclampsia. The study objective was to use systematic double screening and extraction to identify all candidate medicines being investigated for pre-eclampsia prevention/treatment and rank their potential based on the TPPs.
Methods:
Adis Insight, Pharmaprojects, WHO international clinical trials registry platform (ICTRP), PubMed and grant databases were searched (Jan-May 2021). The AIM database was screened for all candidates being investigated for pre-eclampsia. Candidates in clinical development were evaluated against nine prespecified criteria from TPPs identified as key for wide-scale implementation, and classified as high, medium or low potential based on matching to the TPPs. Preclinical candidates were categorised by product type, archetype and medicine subclass.
Results:
The AIM database identified 153 candidates for pre-eclampsia. Of the 87 candidates in clinical development, seven were classified as high potential (prevention: esomeprazole, L-arginine, chloroquine, vitamin D and metformin; treatment: sulfasalazine and metformin) and eight as medium potential (prevention: probiotic lactobacilli, dalteparin, selenium and omega-3 fatty acid; treatment: sulforaphane, pravastatin, rosuvastatin and vitamin B3). Sixty-six candidates were in preclinical development, the most common being amino acid/peptides, siRNA-based medicines and polyphenols.
Conclusions:
This is a novel, evidence-informed approach to identifying promising candidates for pre-eclampsia prevention and treatment - a vital step in stimulating R&D of new medicines for pre-eclampsia suitable for real-world implementation.
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