Leiden Amsterdam Center for Drug Research

Adalimumab (Humira, AbbVie) is a highly effective treatment for a variety of auto-immune/auto-inflammatory diseases including juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Adalimumab works by binding to tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF), hereby preventing its interaction with the TNF receptor. In the presence of complement, adalimumab can also lyse TNF-expressing cells.
Adalimumab is administered via subcutaneous injection, which has the major drawback of being perceived as unpleasant and painful, especially during long term use for both adults and children. As subcutaneous administration may therefore eventually jeopardize treatment adherence, there is a clear need for less invasive alternatives to administer highly effective biological drugs such as adalimumab.
Microneedles may be a potential alternative for invasive drug administration. Microneedles are currently widely investigated for the administration of various vaccines. The experience with administration of biological drugs is rather limited. The sparse available data suggests similar pharmacokinetics of adalimumab when administered either subcutaneous or intradermal in healthy volunteers. Moreover, the first studies report good tolerability of microneedles. However, no systematic studies have been performed yet i) to investigate pain, acceptability, and local tolerability for intradermal versus subcutaneous adalimumab administration ii) to evaluate safety, PK and immunogenicity for intradermal versus subcutaneous adalimumab and iii) to explore the usability of optical coherence tomography, clinical photography, thermal imaging and laser speckle contrast imaging in the evaluation of intradermal injections.
This study will directly compare the pain perception and hence acceptability of a single dose (40 mg) of adalimumab administered subcutaneously (SC) versus intradermally (ID) via microneedles in healthy adult volunteers. Furthermore, the pharmacokinetic profile, pharmacodynamics, the immunogenicity and the tolerability will be assessed. This study will enable bridging to a future study in children and adolescents with JIA, in which the suitability of microneedles for the administration of adalimumab in pediatric patients will be examined. The overarching aim of these studies is to make administration of biologicals in children as pain free as possible.

This study will provide information on the pharmacokinetics, safety and effectiveness of off--label drugs used in critically ill premature infants: doxapram, fentanyl, midazolam, paracetamol, phenobarbital, sildenafil, levetiracetam, ibuprofen and fluconazole. PK/PD analysis with NONMEM (non-linear mixed effects modelling) will result in (adapted) dosage guidelines, thus contributing towards an improvement in the quality of care and cost efficiency. Furthermore the development of Dried Blood Spot (DBS) analysis is investigated for these drugs as a minimally invasive method for conventional patient care and to perform pharmacological studies in children. The adapted dosage guidelines will be implemented directly into clinical practice in collaboration with the NKFK. Therefore the study is designed as an observational multicenter study to be able to collect sufficient data for the drugs of interest.