Books

Available in hardback, paperback and Kindle from Amazon.

Although there are numerous books on drug metabolism, Radiotracers in Drug Development is unique in explaining how radiotracers are used to elucidate a drug’s absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME). Covering traditional and recent technologies and applications, the book takes a strong industrial approach, discussing the basics of scintillation counting and untangling the various data processing methods often specific to individual manufacturers.

A unique reference and training aid essential for every drug metabolism department or drug metabolism research team, the book provides insight into the use and practice of ADME in a way that is both instructive and practical. Moving easily across the boundaries of biology, chemistry, and physics, this is the only comprehensive, interdisciplinary resource covering the how-tos of employing radiotracers in drug development. It provides detailed information on how the science is relevant to the registration process.

Published for a student budget. Kindle version £5, paperback £15, available from Amazon

There are many textbooks on pharmacokinetics and so why yet another? The majority of textbooks cover the theory and mathematics of pharmacokinetics, but few start from the very beginning.

This book starts with a general introduction to the principles of pharmacokinetics but quickly moves on to summarise how clinical pharmacokinetic studies are carried out and how data are acquired. We construct tables of drug-concentration versus time data for a fictional example drug called Pretendalone and then use those data to calculate the major pharmacokinetic parameters which are statistically presented in a way that might be acceptable to the best of journals in the field. In this way we build a pharmacokinetic profile of Pretendalone, providing a template that can be applied to virtually any other drug. Calculations are explained in detail and are carried out using little more than a pencil, graph-paper and calculator. It is essentially a do-it-yourself workshop in real-world pharmacokinetics, which you can follow through step-by-step.

The book does not stop at the calculation of the pharmacokinetic parameters but goes on to explain what they tell us about the behaviour of a drug and how this information is used practically in dose setting and in drug development. The book is nevertheless written at a basic level, being aimed at undergraduates who are encountering pharmacokinetics for the first time, or indeed those in the pharmaceutical or associated industries who are just setting out along the pharmacokinetic road.

The concept of this book began with a YouTube channel which presents a series of lectures given by the authors at the University of Lincoln in the UK. Although the channel was just a repository for the video lectures, they attained a surprising number of views and some of the viewers asked if there might be a textbook to accompany them – this is that book.