Newsletter Volume 41, Number 3, 2026
Introduction
June has arrived, bringing with it deeper greenery and the first signs of summer. I imagine many of you are closely following the FIFA World Cup currently being held in North and Central America. How is your favorite team doing?
Turning our attention closer to home, the hustle and bustle of the new fiscal year has settled down. I imagine that new employees and students who have recently joined our laboratories are gradually getting used to their daily work and research, taking on new challenges in their respective roles.
Currently, the pharmaceutical industry is undergoing unprecedented transformation, including the diversification of drug discovery modalities, the acceleration of development speeds, and the expanding use of AI technology. Amidst these changes, pharmacokinetic research is being called upon to support rapid and sophisticated decision-making more than ever before.
At the same time, precisely because the research environment is becoming more complex, the importance of understanding fundamental science and dialogue among researchers remains unchanged. We hope that the fusion of young researchers’ fresh perspectives and the insights of experienced researchers will lead to the creation of new ideas and value.
We hope this newsletter will serve as a useful tool for our members to share information and deepen their connections.
NEW POWER for pharmacokinetic research
Clinical Research and Application Development Aimed at Advancing Therapeutic Drug Monitoring
Department of Pharmacy, Kumamoto University Hospital / Division of Clinical Pharmacokinetics, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kumamoto University
Kazuki Oda
My name is Kazutaka Oda of the Department of Pharmacy at Kumamoto University Hospital. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the editorial board and all those involved for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the Japanese Society of Pharmacokinetics newsletter, “NEW POWER: Engaging in Pharmacokinetic Research.” As a clinical pharmacist, I have been engaged in the practice and research of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), primarily in the field of infectious diseases.Early in my career, I was involved in establishing a TDM system at a general hospital, where I came to realize the importance of thoroughly analyzing individual case data obtained during daily clinical practice. During that process, I developed BMs-Pod (Medical Pharmacy, 2011) as a tool to streamline pharmacokinetic analysis and have utilized it to support decision-making in clinical settings. … (To be continued on the NL homepage / Members Only)
Pharmacokinetics of Engineered Antibodies
Part 4: Engineered Antibodies with Enhanced Tissue Distribution
DMPKG, Discovery Biologics Department, Research Division, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Yuki Noguchi
Kenta Haraya
In the fourth installment of our series on the pharmacokinetics of modified antibodies—topics you might be too embarrassed to ask about now—we will introduce modified antibodies with enhanced tissue penetration, including pharmacokinetic studies. One characteristic of these antibodies is that they bind to FcRn (neonatal Fc receptor) via their Fc region within endosomes, where they are recycled. By avoiding lysosomal degradation, they exhibit a long half-life.On the other hand, due to their large molecular weight of approximately 150 kDa, the amount that leaves the vasculature and distributes into tissues is limited. While antibody concentrations in general tissues range from a few percent to over ten percent of plasma concentrations, in the brain, for example, the presence of a highly effective barrier such as the blood-brain barrier (BBB) results in an extremely low transfer rate of approximately 0.1% relative to plasma antibody concentrations.Furthermore, since articular cartilage consists of a dense, avascular extracellular matrix, it is one of the tissues through which antibodies have difficulty penetrating. … ( To be continued on the NL homepage / Members Only )