A Kinetic Model for the Integrated Assessment of Safety and Efficacy in Clinical Trials

Regulatory agencies, professional societies, and clinical trialists commonly base judgments of treatment benefit on separate assessments of efficacy and safety. When separate assessments were compared with an integrated assessment using a kinetic model of a hypothetical randomized trial of antiplatelet agents in patients with acute coronary syndrome, the former showed treatment A to be superior to treatment B, whereas the latter showed treatment B to be superior to treatment A. In conclusion, comparative judgments regarding the balance between efficacy and safety depend on the model chosen for analysis; kinetic models are particularly suited to the integrated assessment of efficacy and safety relative to regulatory decisions, public policy, guideline development, and clinical care.