Importance of epidemiological purpose in disease prevention

By Avishek Majumder on November 13, 2018

The epidemiological purpose of pharmaceutical industry comprises mainly towards the provision of quality drugs for prevention and intervention of emerging infectious disease (EID). Data gets collected in form of mortality rate, incidence rate and prevalence of the infectious agents. Epidemiological purpose also comprises of usage of statistics to not just explore the prevalence of diseases but also explore the efficacy of drugs (Ahmad et al., 2013). Usage of epidemiological studies helps to retrieve strain and genome-specific causal organisms of infections. Data gathered help development of the personalized and strain-specific drugs for disease prevention and intervention. Outcomes help the government in deciding better treatment plans, policies for drugs and set a budget for disease prevention and intervention.

An epidemiological purpose for disease prevention and intervention

The techniques and methods of epidemiology for prevention and intervention depends on the clinical data. The analysis performed on the data provides outcomes that determine the efficacy of the available drugs. Outcomes help in the development of better and efficient drugs. Outcomes are based on strain specific and genotypic structure of the samples provided by healthcare organizations. This helps better control of the pathogens causing the infectious disease (Ahmad et al., 2013). Disease prevention and intervention is also possible by devising and suggesting new ways of disease management to the government.  New ways of disease management comprise of new drugs, personalized and genome-specific drugs.

Epidemiological purpose of the pharmaceutical industry helps forecast the prevalence of communicable diseases and health economics, thereby making possible to plan the production of drugs and distribution. Pre-planning ultimately leads to the formation of effective government policies against diseases (Sigler, et. al., 2011). Epidemiologists in the pharmaceutical industry design and conduct studies to help understand the lifecycle of disease. The study also includes information on modification by a pharmaceutical or biologic agent for the production of drugs. These observational studies have pharmaceuticals or biologic agents as a focus of the investigations. Thus, disease prevention and intervention made possible with the help of clinical studies and efficacy studies.

Data and statistics for disease prevention and intervention of EID

Types of data and outcomes involved in clinical studies comprise of post-marketing activities. Surveillance of the disease and drug efficacy helps in identification of the efficacy of the drugs (Sigler, et. al., 2011). Pre-production of drugs comprises of experimental clinical trials of the drugs and non-experimental observational research. The outcomes from these epidemiological studies provide the prevalence of infectious disease over time. It also helps to identify if the drugs need geographical and strain-specific production.

Importance of epidemiological purpose and epidemiological data in disease prevention (Roth et al., 2000)
Importance of epidemiological purpose and epidemiological data in disease prevention (Roth et al., 2000)

If the prevalence of the disease is increasing over time even after the usage of the drugs, it denotes that the pathogens are becoming resistant to these drugs. This will be beneficial for the development of the more effective drugs that effectively control the prevalence of infectious diseases. The epidemiological studies also determine the areas that are highly impacted by the adverse effects of the infectious diseases caused by the specific strain of pathogen (Singh & Loke, 2012). Thus, epidemiological purpose plays an important role in promoting the pharmaceutical industries for the development of medicines. Furthermore, the outcomes help government plan specified policies for prevention and intervention of EID.

Pharmacoepidemiology and its activities

Epidemiological purpose plays an important role in pharmacoepidemiology studies about the effects of drugs on a group of the population. It determines the molecular basis of the drugs and compares to the molecular basis of the mutated viral genome. Pharmacoepidemiologists make appropriate comparisons between treated and untreated patients with the help of clinical data collected (Roth et al., 2000). The outcome of this study help in determining the efficacy of the drugs on infectious diseases and help government in policymaking. They conduct comparative studies amongst different geographies using the same drug or different and assess the efficacy in disease prevention and intervention.

Major epidemiological studies for prevention and intervention of EID
Major epidemiological studies for prevention and intervention of EID

Testing drug safety activity to prevention and intervention of EID

Testing the drug safety by performing the clinical trials is an important epidemiological purpose. Test outcomes ensure that only effective drugs distributed to the public for safe consumption (Singh & Loke, 2012). It forms the primary basis of the regulatory approval for a drug. Pharmaceutical epidemiology further helps in providing support to the government in ensuring safety policies of drugs for control of infections. Epidemiologies improve the pharmaceutical surveillance of the health of the population nationwide.

Pharmacovigilance encouraging policy-making

The pharmacovigilance studies as part of epidemiological purposes, test the efficacy of the drugs post-marketing. In this process, epidemiology helps monitor the effects of the drugs after they have been licensed for use to identify and assess the previously unreported adverse reaction (Singh & Loke, 2012). It involves proactively scanning the environment and identifying signals and trends, with an increased focus on the post-marketing environment. It provides insight on how the drug is performing in the real world and thereby effect on prevention and intervention of infections. The government uses this data to determine whether the drug effective in the larger and high-risk populations encouraging the government for improved policies.

Pharmacoeconomics for better future planning

Pharmacoeconomics helps in the identification and comparison of the cost and efficacy of the drugs or treatment therapy. It also determines the degree of benefit to the health care system and the society for the prevention and intervention of EID (Ahmad et al., 2013). Forecasted data helps identify the cost benefits, cost-utility, cost minimization and cost-effectiveness for better and efficient outreach to the rural population. This, in turn, helps the government to identify resource allocation for research and also for the rural and the poor. Efficient drugs are cost-effective and are distributed to a larger population, allowing outreach of drugs to a larger population and better prevention and intervention of EID.

Usage of outcomes of pharmacoepidemiology research

The outcome of the epidemiological studies by the pharmaceutical industries helps in the innovation of the new drug along with the cost-effectiveness. It includes the principles of epidemiology, clinical research, health economics, quality of life assessment and health policy (Duttagupta, 2010). The epidemiological studies in the pharmaceutical industry are also supplemented by the healthcare industry as the drugs developed effect directly on the general population. The epidemiological studies provide technology and scientific understanding for the advancement of treatment and intervention methods. This, in turn, helps the government decide their budget allocation and expenditures for prevention and intervention of EID and policy formation.

References

  • Ahmad, A., Patel, I., Parimilakrishnan, S., Mohanta, G. P., Chung, H., & Chang, J. (2013). The role of pharmacoeconomics in current Indian healthcare system. Journal of Research in Pharmacy Practice, 2(1), 3–9. https://doi.org/10.4103/2279-042X.114081.
  • Duttagupta, S. (2010). Outcomes research and drug development. Perspectives in Clinical Research, 1(3), 104–105. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21814630.
  • Roth, L., Shinaberry, L., Lucy, M., Liao, I., Riley, E., Andrews, E., & Siegfried, J. (2000). Epidemiology in the Pharmaceutical Industry, 9(January), 139–148.
  • Sigler, C., Arbor, A., Stemhagen, A., & Bell, B. (2011). Epidemiology in Drug Development.
  • Singh, S., & Loke, Y. K. (2012). Drug safety assessment in clinical trials: methodological challenges and opportunities. Trials, 13, 138. https://doi.org/10.1186/1745-6215-13-138.

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