Mats Karlsson and Andrew Hooker calculate the best path to new drug treatments

In 2001, Uppsala University appointed Mats Karlsson as the world's first Professor of Pharmacometrics. At the time, not even his faculty neighbors at the Biomedical Center knew exactly what their new colleague would be doing. 24 years later, perspectives are different: The European Medicines Agency calculates the economic importance of the subject to astronomical amounts. Many consider it to be the key to the pharmacy of the future. But still, Mats and his team lack an equivalent in the academic world.

“When I joined the group twenty years ago, Uppsala was already a hub in pharmacometrics. Today, our research team has close to fifty employees. It is unique in scope and without a doubt a contributing factor to our scientific output that is applied and cited extensively throughout the entire life cycle of drugs, from development and trials to individual treatment,” says Andrew Hooker, Professor of Pharmacometrics.

The laboratory at the Uppsala’s Biomedical Center definitely delivers the goods. A search for Mats Karlsson and Andrew Hooker in the medical database PubMed generates nearly 550 scientific articles. The publications offer mathematical models, methods to apply them and software of great value to researchers, companies, healthcare and authorities worldwide. That both the American and European Medicines Agency guidelines refer to the group's results contributes to furthering the reach of their research range.

“The cost to develop a new drug is currently estimated to 30 billion SEK, of which the lion's share is spent on clinical trials that last an average of eight years. With models to integrate data on disease, drugs and trials, we can generate information to support decision making within research, trial design, regulatory and healthcare. Therefore, we make our results available for free use in order to contribute to better and more cost-effective treatments,” says Mats Karlsson.

In parallel, the team is a sought-after partner in international collaborations. Currently, the group devotes a lot of energy to diseases that fall into the category of rare diagnoses, where they both lead and are engaged in numerous European consortia. Another important window to the world is Pharmetheus, the company Andrew and Mats founded together with eight colleagues, which has since expanded to more than a hundred employees operating in 15 countries.

“Pharmetheus gives us a channel to effectively implement our methods and models into practical operation. It also gives our research group insight into the challenges faced by our partners, which in turn makes sure that our research remains relevant. This is a field that is constantly opening new doors, and we are convinced that we still have many scientific contributions ahead of us.”

text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt