Population pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic analysis of PEG-rhGH enhances confidence in exploring dosing schemes with longer intervals

PEG-rhGH (Jintrolong®, 0.2 mg/kg/week) is approved in China for the treatment of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) in children. Although 0.2 mg/kg/2 weeks PEG-rhGH failed the non-inferiority threshold of 20% compared with 0.2 mg/kg/week PEG-rhGH, it notably increases serum IGF-1 levels and height velocity in a phase IV trial. In the absence of investigation on the relationship between pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, this analysis aimed to build a population pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PopPK/PD) model to characterize the relationship between serum PEG-rhGH concentration and serum insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels after subcutaneously administration of PEG-rhGH and to explore the possibility of flexible dosing schemes and improve the clinical monitor practice of IGF-1 levels. A total of 41 subjects were included for the PopPK analysis, consisting of 30 healthy adults (single dose of 0.1–0.4 mg/kg) and 11 GHD children (multiple doses of 0.2 mg/kg/2 weeks for 26 consecutive weeks). Only GHD children were included for the PopPK/PD analysis. The time courses of serum PEG-rhGH concentrations in healthy adults and GHD children and those of serum IGF-1 levels stimulated by serum PEG-rhGH were well developed with non-linear mixed-effects modeling. Serum PEG-rhGH pharmacokinetics after subcutaneous administration were adequately described by a one-compartment model with a zero-order input into the absorption compartment followed by first-order absorption dictating absorption into the central compartment, with a dual elimination process consisting of a capacity limited process and a non-capacity limited process. Body weight was a significant covariate. The drug effects on IGF-1 levels were adequately described by a turnover model with saturable effect relationship. IGF-1 responses at the various dosing scheme scenarios were simulated, and illustrated that dosing schemes with intervals longer than the approved one week could be promising, which may provide comparable peaks and average IGF-1 levels and IGF-1 SDS to dosing schemes that have been clinically proven to be tolerated and effective. An accurate prediction of the time course of the effect of various dosing schemes may assist the clinical monitoring practice. This pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic analysis suggested that longer intervals or higher dosing strengths (e.g., 0.3 mg/kg/10 days) in children with GHD are promising compared with the approved dosing scheme (0.2 mg/kg/week). Our simulation may assist the clinical monitoring of the PEG-rhGH therapy.