Comparison between physiologically based pharmacokinetic and population pharmacokinetic modelling to select paediatric doses of gepotidacin in plague

Aims: To develop physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) and population pharmacokinetic (PopPK) models to predict effective doses of gepotidacin in paediatrics for the treatment of pneumonic plague (Yersinia pestis).

Methods: A gepotidacin PBPK model was constructed using a population-based absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion simulator, Simcyp®, with physicochemical and in vitro data, optimized with clinical data from a dose-escalation intravenous (IV) study and a human mass balance study. A PopPK model was developed with pooled PK data from phase 1 studies with IV gepotidacin in healthy adults.

Results: For both the PopPK and PBPK models, body weight was found to be a key covariate affecting gepotidacin clearance. With PBPK, ~90% of the predicted PK for paediatrics fell between the 5th and 95th percentiles of adult values except for subjects weighing ≤5 kg. PopPK-simulated paediatric means for C_max and AUC_(0-τ) were similar to adult exposures across various weight brackets. The proposed dosing regimens were weight-based for subjects ≤40 kg and fixed-dose for subjects >40 kg. Comparison of observed and predicted exposures in adults indicated that both PBPK and PopPK models achieved similar AUC and C_max for a given dose, but the C_max predictions with PopPK were slightly higher than with PBPK. The two models differed on dose predictions in children <3 months old. The PopPK model may be suboptimal for low age groups due to the absence of maturation characterization of drug-metabolizing enzymes involved with clearance in adults.

Conclusions: Both PBPK and PopPK approaches can reasonably predict gepotidacin exposures in children.