Cognigen Corporation, a Simulations Plus company (Nasdaq: SLP) and a leading provider of population pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeling and simulation services, today announced that it has released Version 4.0 of its KIWI™ Pharmacometric Communication and Collaboration Platform.
KIWI is a private cloud-based, validated platform to efficiently and consistently organize, process, visualize, evaluate, and communicate modeling and simulation results. Since the introduction of KIWI 1.0 in 2011, our mission has been to provide pharmacometricians with the most efficient analysis environment possible. The release of KIWI version 4.0 continues that mission with the introduction of the Model Wizard and the Covariate Analysis toolset.
A pharmacometric analysis is an evolutionary process – one that often results in the creation of hundreds of new program files and code changes to hundreds more due to common typographical and programmatic errors. The Model Wizard and the Covariate Analysis toolset aim to significantly reduce the time spent creating models, correcting errors, and replicating program files for performing stepwise covariate analyses, allowing pharmacometricians to focus on advancing science. With continued feedback from KIWI license holders, various visualizations within KIWI 4.0 and the pharmacometric-specific Data Repository will continue to be updated with new features and functionality.
KIWI has been specifically designed to recognize the dynamic nature of the model building effort in an ongoing drug development program. KIWI provides the functionality to meet the scientist’s need for extensive documentation of the analysis pathway and collateral results, management’s need for summaries of modeling and simulation highlights, and the regulatory agencies’ needs for transparency and reproducibility. KIWI continues to bring user experience to a new level through efficient and decisive model building. KIWI demonstrations will be available through Cognigen personnel attending the PAGE meeting this week in Stockholm, Sweden.
Dr. Sebastien Bihorel, director of Pharmacometrics and KIWI Applications, said: “Our team continues to introduce exciting functionality into KIWI. The new Wizards greatly decrease the time and effort required to create model codes for 3 different industry-standard modeling platforms: NONMEM®, mrgsolve, and Berkeley Madonna. They will significantly lower the learning curve for modelers who are new to these platforms while providing consistent coding standards to more experienced users.”
Dr. Ted Grasela, president of Cognigen, added: “Over the course of a typical drug development program, fit-for-purpose (F4P) models based on the current facts and available data are used to inform development decision making and aid in the design of clinical trials. These F4P models represent an important repository of knowledge which can be expanded as new knowledge emerges. The cloud-based KIWI platform serves a key role in this process by tracking the model refinement process and capturing development team insights and suggested improvements.”
KIWI was featured at a NONMEM workshop held as part of the University of Buffalo’s annual PK/PD course held this past May, with international attendance from both academia and industry. Another workshop is now planned for September 23-25, 2019, at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. Attendance is limited. Contact Jill Harlach (jharlach@cognigencorp.com) for further information.