Associate Professor Jenny Schneider

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG Endocannabinoid pharmacology is now relatively well understood with a number of endocannabinoids and endogenous cannabinoid neurotransmitters identified and the pharmacokinetics relatively well ascertained. Further, the cannabinoid receptors are now molecularly and pharmacologically characterised and the cell processes involved in endocannabinoid transcription, synthesis, post-translational modification and protein expression are reported. Endogenous cannabinoids have been shown to have key roles in immune and pain pathways and neuro-behavioural signalling including appetite regulation. Significant recent interest has thus been shown in understanding these pathways to guide the development of agents that inhibit the natural catabolism of endogenous cannabinoids to modify pain and appetite, and to synthesise antagonists for the treatment of disease such as obesity. This research is concurrent with the renewed clinical interest in exogenous cannabinoids and their use in disease. However, the complex pharmacology and physiological effects of exogenous cannabinoids, either as individual components or in combination, as extracts or via administration of the whole plant in humans, are less well known. Yet as with all other therapeutics, including those derived from plants, knowledge of the pharmacokinetics and dynamics of the complete plant, the individual chemical molecules and their synthetic versions, including formulations and excipients is a standard part of drug development. This article covers the key pharmacological knowledge required to guide further exploration of the toxicity and efficacy of different cannabinoids and their formulations in blinded placebo-controlled studies.

© 2015 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of providing diabetes risk assessment at community pharmacy level in Australia and Thailand from organizational aspects. Methods: The intervention study was conducted in eight community pharmacies in New South Wales, Australia, and six community pharmacies in Central Thailand. Diabetes risk assessment tools were applied to determine the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. An open-ended question was asked to solicit the willingness-to-pay value for the service. A semistructured interview was conducted with participating pharmacists to solicit the perceived facilitators and barriers in providing the service. Results: There were a total of 132 and 185 participants, with the ratio of participants in the three risk categories of low, intermediate, and high being 1:4:11 and 2:1:1.5 for Australia and Thailand, respectively. More Thai participants were willing to pay for the service (72.4% vs. 18.9%; P = 0.0001). Pharmacists from both countries agreed that providing risk assessment would increase health awareness and assist in dampening the burden of disease. A major barrier is time and staff shortage. Support from the government and collaboration among health care providers were major facilitators from Thai pharmacists' perspective, whereas remuneration was a major facilitator from Australian pharmacists' perspective. Conclusions: Pharmacists in both countries agreed that this intervention would contribute to produce positive health benefits. Differences in advantages and barriers as well as in the proportion of consumers willing to pay for the service demonstrated that it is essential for pharmacists (particularly in developing countries) to be aware of the pitfalls of copying practice initiatives in developed countries without any consideration of the local health care environment.

� 2016 The British Pharmacological Society Background: Intramuscular droperidol is used increasingly for sedation of aggressive and violent patients. This study aimed to characterise the pharmacokinetics of intramuscular droperidol in these patients to determine how rapidly it is absorbed and the expected duration of measurable drug concentrations. Methods: We undertook a population pharmacokinetic analysis of a subgroup of patients from a clinical trial comparing droperidol and midazolam: 17 receiving 5�mg and 24 receiving 10�mg droperidol. Droperidol was measured using high-performance liquid chromatography. Pharmacokinetic modelling was performed under a nonlinear mixed effects modelling framework (NONMEM v7.2). The model was used to simulate concentration time profiles of three typical doses, 5�mg, 10�mg and 10�mg�+�10�mg repeated at 15�min. Results: A two-compartment first-order input with first-order output model fitted the data best. The absorption rate constant was poorly characterised by the data and an estimate of the first order rate constant of absorption when fixed to 10�h ¿1 provided a stable model and lowest objective function. This represents extremely rapid absorption with a half-life of 5�min. The final model had a clearance of 41.9�l�h ¿1 and volume of distribution of the central compartment of, 73.6�l. Median and interquartile range of initial (alpha) half-life was 0.32�h (0.26¿0.37�h) and second (beta) half-life was 3.0�h (2.5¿3.6�h). Simulations indicate that 10�mg alone provides an 80% probability of being above the lower limit of quantification (5�µg�l ¿1 ) for 7�h, 2�h longer than for 5�mg. Giving two 10�mg doses increased this duration to 10�h. Conclusions: Intramuscular droperidol is rapidly absorbed with high therapeutic concentrations after 5 and 10�mg doses, and supports clinical data in which droperidol sedates rapidly for up to 6�h.

© 2015 The British Pharmacological Society. Paediatric patients, particularly preterm neonates, present many pharmacological challenges. Due to the difficulty in conducting clinical trials in these populations dosing information is often extrapolated from adult populations. As the processes of absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of drugs change throughout growth and development extrapolation presents risk of over or underestimating the doses required. Information about the development these processes, particularly drug metabolism pathways, is still limited with weight based dose adjustment presenting the best method of estimating pharmacokinetic changes due to growth and development. New innovations in pharmacokinetic research, such as population pharmacokinetic modelling, present unique opportunities to conduct clinical trials in these populations improving the safety and effectiveness of the drugs used. More research is required into this area to ensure the best outcomes for our most vulnerable patients.