Pediatric Trials Network
The Pediatric Trials Network is a consortium of clinical research sites located around the United States that are cooperating in the design and conduct of clinical trials to improve health care for young patients. The network is sponsored by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
The work of the PTN addresses a critical lack of information regarding the impact of therapeutic agents on infants and children. Developing organs and changes in metabolism throughout infancy and childhood affect how drugs are processed by immature or maturing bodies; thus, age-dependent adjustments in doses are required to ensure that such therapies are used safely and effectively. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of drugs and devices approved by the Food and Drug Administration have actually been studied in children and are labeled for pediatric use. Pediatricians, consequently, are often forced to prescribe medical therapies "off-label," or according to their best guess based on adult studies.
To fill this knowledge gap, the PTN is studying the formulation, dosing, efficacy, and safety of drugs, as well as the development of medical devices, used in pediatric patients. In keeping with the goals of the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act, data collected from PTN trials are helping regulators to revise FDA labels for safer and more effective use in infants and children.
A map of sites currently participating in PTN trials may be viewed on the network's website .
Background
Pediatric clinical research faces unique challenges: low study consent rates among parents of sick children, limited blood volume available for the conduct of pharmacokinetic studies, and a relative lack of pediatric analytical expertise in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, to name a few. Because of such obstacles, before 1998, pharmaceutical companies were not required by the government to test their drugs in infants and children, even if the drugs were commonly given to those populations.The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act and BPCA offer financial incentives in the form of patent extensions for companies that voluntarily test their drugs in pediatric patients. BPCA also provides a mechanism by which off-patent therapeutics might be studied through a collaboration between the FDA and National Institutes of Health. The NICHD is responsible for funding these studies from its annual budget.
Since the BPCA was first enacted, the NICHD has awarded numerous projects to organizations and institutions for the purpose of gathering information to improve pediatric drug labeling. One of these projects is the PTN, which is creating a scientific, technical, and administrative infrastructure that, in strategic partnership with the NICHD, is studying critical drugs and diagnostic devices in children to improve labeling for pediatric use.
Current projects
The PTN is conducting a number of pediatric trials spanning several therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, infectious diseases, gastroenterology, respiratory diseases, neonatology, and medical devices. Below is a summary of PTN projects as of October 2013.| Trial | ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier | Molecule of Interest | Summary |
| Safety and pharmacokinetics of multiple-dose metronidazole in premature infants | Metronidazole | Studied the safety and pharmacokinetics of intravenous metronidazole in premature infants with suspected serious infection; study completed, dosing recommendations published | |
| Taking the guesswork out of pediatric weight estimation | N/A | Evaluated the predictive performance and equivalence of the Mercy Method™ weight estimation method in children. | |
| An open-label study to describe the pharmacokinetics of acyclovir in premature infants | Acyclovir | Evaluating the safety and pharmacokinetics of intravenous acyclovir in premature infants with suspected systemic infection; analysis in progress, results expected in 2013 | |
| Hydroxyurea in pediatric patients with sickle cell anemia | Hydroxyurea | Examining the pharmacokinetics of hydroxyurea in children with sickle cell anemia; enrollment ongoing | |
| Pharmacokinetics of understudied drugs administered to children per standard of care | Amiodarone, Ampicillin, Bumetanide, Clindamycin, Clonidine, Doxycycline, Epinephrine, Fentanyl, Fluconazole, Furosemide, Granisetron, Griseofulvin, Hydrochlorothiazide, Hydroxocobalamin, Ketamine, Meropenem, Methadone, Metoclopramide, Ondansetron, Pravastatin, Simvastatin, Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole | Characterizing the pharmacokinetics of understudied drugs that are administered to children regularly by their treating physicians; enrollment ongoing | |
| Safety and pharmacokinetics of lisinopril in pediatric kidney transplant recipients | Lisinopril | Examining the pharmacokinetics of lisinopril in pediatric kidney transplant recipients; enrollment completed, results expected in 2013 | |
| Midazolam for treatment of status epilepticus | N/A | Midazolam | Providing supplemental data to support the change of the current midazolam prescription labeling to include the treatment of seizures; analysis in progress |
| The ampicillin in infants study | N/A | Ampicillin | Evaluating the pharmacokinetics and safety of ampicillin for the treatment of sepsis and/or meningitis in infants at various ages and birth weights; analysis in progress |
| Studying obesity and drug dosing in children | N/A | N/A | Developing a drug database for clinicians and researchers that will provide dosing guidelines for obese children; in progress |
| Pharmacokinetics of anti-staphylococcal antibiotics in infants | Clindamycin, Rifampin, Ticarcillin-clavulanate | Studying the pharmacokinetics and safety of 3 anti-staphylococcal antibiotics in term and premature infants; enrollment ongoing | |
| Pharmacokinetics of sildenafil in premature infants | Sildenafil | Evaluating the pharmacokinetics and safety of sildenafil for the treatment of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in premature infants; enrollment ongoing | |
| Safety and pharmacokinetics of multiple-dose intravenous and oral clindamycin in obese children | Clindamycin | Determining the pharmacokinetics of intravenous and oral clindamycin in overweight and obese children and adolescents with Staphylococcus aureus infections; enrollment ongoing | |
| Safety of fluconazole prophylaxis in infants | N/A | Fluconazole | Examining the safety of fluconazole prophylaxis in premature infants with candidemia; data collection underway |
| Efficacy of antiviral suppression therapy after neonatal HSV infection of the central nervous system | N/A | Acyclovir | Will assess the safety of high-dose acyclovir in infants with herpes simplex virus via retrospective database and chart reviews and secondary data analysis |
| The effect of obesity on the pharmacokinetics of pantoprazole in children and adolescents | N/A | Pantoprazole | Will assess the pharmacokinetics of pantoprazole in obese children and adolescents; protocol in development |
| Safety of drugs used in hospitalized infants | N/A | N/A | Will characterize the safety of drugs used in hospitalized infants using data collected on infants discharged from NICUs managed by the Pediatrix Medical Group; protocol in development |
| Antibiotic safety in infants with complicated intra-abdominal infections | Ampicillin, Clindamycin, Metronidazole, Piperacillin-tazobactam | Will evaluate the safety of drug regimens consisting of ampicillin, metronidazole, clindamycin, and piperacillin-tazobactam in infants with complicated intra-abdominal infections | |
| Extremely low birth weight infants exposed to furosemide or bumetanide in the neonatal intensive care unit | N/A | Bumetanide, Furosemide | Will estimate incidence of adverse events in infants exposed to furosemide or bumetanide during hospitalization in the NICU; the safety profile of the drugs of interest will be evaluated |
| Pharmacokinetics of multiple-dose methadone in children | Methadone | Will determine the pharmacokinetics of enteral methadone in children treated for opiate withdrawal |