Modeling and Simulation in the Development of Cardiovascular Agents

Cardiovascular pharmacology encompasses a wide range of diseases. With most agents in this therapeutic area, there are specific therapeutic targets for biomarkers such as systolic blood pressure or LDL cholesterol levels that need to be met to ensure adequate clinical response in patients. Overdoses of these agents may be associated with toxicity. Modeling and simulation have proven to be valuable tools to target and adjust doses in patients. Because most cardiovascular agents are adaptively dosed based on individual response, the dose adjustment strategy must be implemented for model evaluation and simulation. This chapter reviews the cardiovascular pharmacology areas of treatment of hypercholesterolemia, stroke and hypertension, and applications of modeling and simulation in these disease states.