Certara, a provider of decision support technology and consulting services for optimizing drug development and improving health outcomes, has announced that Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) Hospital in Beijing, China, and Keio University in Tokyo, Japan have become Phoenix Centers of Excellence.

Phoenix is the most advanced, intuitive, and widely-used software for pharmacokinetic (PK), pharmacodynamic (PD), and toxicokinetic (TK) modeling and simulation. Phoenix is used by 6,000 researchers at 1,500 biopharmaceutical companies and 200 academic institutions in 60 countries. Phoenix is also employed by many global regulatory agencies including the FDA, the Japanese Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency and China Food and Drug Administration. 

“As regulators and sponsors recognize the growing importance of model-based drug development (MBDD), Certara has committed to educating the next generation of experts in this field, on a global basis,” said Certara Chief Executive Officer Edmundo Muniz, M.D., Ph.D. “We are achieving that goal by partnering with eminent scientists at designated academic centers of excellence around the world and providing them with access to our Phoenix software—which is the gold standard in PK/PD—for teaching and research.”

The Phoenix Centers of Excellence routinely publish their work so that other researchers can benefit from their progress. They also serve as an informal scientific advisory group.

At PUMC Hospital, Professor Pei Hu, M.D., professor and director of its Clinical Pharmacology Research Center, will use Certara’s modeling and simulation technology for first-in-human, point-of-care, and late-phase clinical trials. MBDD strategy has been routinely applied in her unit to support Chinese new moiety entity development.

Founded by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1921, PUMC Hospital conducts clinical research into severe, rare and complicated diseases. It has 4,000 employees and is affiliated with both PUMC and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. For the past six years, PUMC Hospital has been named the Number 1 hospital in the List of the Best Chinese Hospitals published by FuDan University, the most famous ranking list in China. 

Certara also has ongoing collaborations with pharmacometrics leaders in Japan. Considered to be Japan’s leader in PK/PD, Professor Yusuke Tanigawara, PhD, is professor of Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics at Keio University School of Medicine. Keio University is the oldest institute of higher education in Japan.

Certara’s other Phoenix Centers of Excellence are located at the University of Auckland School of Medicine; the State University of New York Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; the University of Minnesota School of Pharmacy; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Eshelman School of Pharmacy; the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy; and the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine.