Surrogate endpoints are an essential part of the drug development professionals arsenal, without them many products would be too expensive and too long to be economically viable, but the challenge as ever is selecting those that are going to give you the best insight into your products utility, whilst being cost effective and timely. As with many things its “correlation does not mean necessarily causation” . I for one am happy to use surrogate endpoints, the regulators are happy for me to use them and the wider scientific community is happy for me to use them, but always bear in mind when your using a surrogate its just that a surrogate and does not tell you directly what is happening and there is always a risk associated with that.

I have just read a great article that puts this point across very well and is worthy of a read. When the Lights Go Out by Darshak Sanghavi at Slate.com why not have a read.

If you would like more detail in this area please get in touch with Damien Bové damien.bove@idaconsultants.com

Damien Bové works as a drug development consultant (pharmaceutical or biotechnology) and regulatory consultant, we work with our clients to define a drug  development target, define a drug development strategy, define a regulatory strategy or define a commercial strategy. Our clients are generally raising funds or looking to license out their technology and we help them achieve it. If you want to know more don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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