A biomarker response under prescribed therapy reflects drug response remains the intake of the medicines i.e., adherence.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D deficiency is cured with supplementation by mouth. National guidelines recommend the administration of 800 IU cholecalciderol daily for an effective treatment, especially during the winter (poor sun exposition). Available form in Switzerland are alcoholic drops. Because therapeutic range of vitamin D is wide and toxicity is seldom reached, the administration of 8 drops daily or of the cumulative amount of 5'600 IU weekly or 24'000 IU monthly have been proposed.
We investigated which form (liquid or solid) and which schedule (weekly or monthly) procure the highest adherence behavior with outpatients under polypharmacy (4 medications or more daily).

More informations on www.clinicaltrials.gov Identifier NCT03141593

Leader: PD Dr. Isabelle Arnet
Post-doc: Dr. Jean-Pierre Rothen (since 2018)

We investigated drug resistance to anti-platelet therapies and combined electronic adherence monitoring of all solid oral drugs with biomarker measurements. We were able to rule out non adherence and therefore to assess drug drug interactions, whereas pharmacogenetic tests and assessment of biomarkers allowed the identification of contributing factors when the lack of biomarker response persisted. In our view, an unfavourable clinical outcome should be addressed as "treatment failure" whereas "drug resistance" should be restricted to drugs whose efficacy can be evaluated with pharmacological biomarkers.

More informations on www.clinicaltrials.gov Identifier NCT01832129 and NCT02111967

Leader: Dr. Philipp N. Walter
PhD student: Corina Metaxas (2013-2017)