Software for population pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics

Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modelling is being used increasingly as a t ool in drug development because often in phase III clinical trials only spa rse data are available for analysis and so a nonlinear mixed effects modell ing approach has to be adopted. Specialist data analytical techniques and s oftware are required to analyse such data. This article reviews some of the software currently available for performing nonlinear mixed effects modell ing. A questionnaire was devised and sent to a number of software producers and the findings are presented and discussed in this paper. The programs could be grouped into 3 main categories: parametric and nonparametric maximum lik elihood and Bayesian. It was apparent from the questionnaire that software development for popula tion data analysis is a very active area of investigation. The implementati on of methodologies varied widely between the packages: some were self-cont ained programs, whereas others were written within another application, usu ally a statistical package. They also varied with respect to their ease of use and level of support offered by the software producers. Although robust ness and reliability are important concerns, they were not addressed in the present review. Most of the programs surveyed are in continual development .