Defining patient centric drug product design and its impact on improving safety and effectiveness

Abstract

Drug therapy is being recognized as the most preferred intervention in the cure or management of acute and chronic diseases. Progress in medical and pharmaceutical sciences coupled with the increasing life expectancy in aging societies has constantly increased the sophistication of the drug products as well as the complexity of the patients and their therapeutic regimen. Despite the fact that acute and chronic diseases can be treated with several drugs very effectively, poor adherence and medication errors often lead to poor therapeutic outcomes. Patient centricity has been identified as the way forward to improve the therapeutic outcomes by including the patient in a variety of different ways in drug product development and the therapy process. This review focus on the critical patient– product interface taking into account the increasing complexity of the micro- and macro-ergonomic context of the drug product and its use within therapeutic schemes and regimen of the patient. A definition for “patient centric drug product design” is proposed and the impact on drug product safety and effectiveness is discussed.