Toward a Comprehensive Model of ∆⁹-Tetrahydrocannabinol Pharmacokinetics Using a Population Pharmacokinetics Approach

Excerpt

In the article “Population pharmacokinetic model of THC integrates oral, intravenous, and pulmonary dosing and characterizes short- and long-term pharmacokinetics”, Heuberger and colleagues [1] describe a model of ∆⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) pharmacokinetics derived from a population pharmacokinetics approach. Population pharmacokinetics is an analytical strategy that develops a statistical model describing the functional relationship between the concentration of a drug and time, typically using non-linear regression with data from individual subjects [2]. A major advantage of this approach over more traditional methods is that the model can be derived from sparsely sampled clinical data, requiring only a few samples from each subject [2, 3]. Further, the data can come from distinct studies with different experimental designs [2]. Population pharmacokinetics is often used to identify pharmacokinetic differences between populations of interest (e.g., adults vs. children). However, the model can also be used to characterize pharmacokinetics of different routes of administration, while still accounting for individual differences in drug disposition [3]. These features can produce detailed models that are relevant to clinical applications (e.g., by guiding a dosing strategy that maintains a drug’s concentration within its therapeutic range) [2]. …