Introduction: The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate and compare the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) profile of rFVIIa and NN1731 in two hemophilia A dogs. In addition, it was the aim to evaluate the use of TEG for monitoring rFVIIa/NN1731 activity after in vivo administration and to compare with ex vivo spiking data from a previous study. NN1731 is a new rFVIIa analoge with enhanced activity (

Allen et al.
Arterioscler. Thromb. Vasc. Biol.
2007
;
27
:
683
–689
). In hemophilia patients as well as hemophilia dogs the clot formation is impaired and reflected in coagulation assays such as thromboelastography (TEG) and APTT. The choice of hemophilia dogs is based upon the knowledge that the pharmacokinetics of human coagulations factors (FVIII, FIX and rFVIIa) as well as the effective dose is similar to that in humans. In normal dogs, it is not possible to evaluate the effect of these procoagulant proteins in coagulation assays as no impaired clotting is observed.

Methods: rFVIIa and NN1731 (280 μg/kg IV) were administered to two hemophilia dogs on separate days and plasma samples collected at different time points. FVIIa activity was measured by the FVIIa clot assay and values were used for pharmacokinetic assessment. The same pharmacokinetic models, a non-compartmental method and a two compartment model, respectively, were used as was the case in the First Human Dosing (FHD) trial of NN1731 (NN1731–1639). Analysis of PD markers in dogs included: APTT, PT and whole blood thromboelastography analysis, recently developed for use in hemophilia dogs.

Results: Based on the FVIIa activity profile in the two dogs it was observed that the values obtained at the first time point (C5 min), were higher after treatment with NN1731 than after rFVIIa. All activity based assays including TEG demonstrated that NN1731 was cleared faster than rFVIIa., FVIIa activity (FVIIa clot assay), showed a rapid initial distribution and/or elimination of FVIIa activity (t1/2α:0.3 h) followed by a less rapid elimination phase (t½β:3.5 h). Similar profile and values were obtained for NN1731 in the FHD dose study (J. Møss et al, ISTH, 2007)

Conclusions: This study indicates that in hemophilia A dogs, NN1731 and rFVIIa have distinct PK profiles and very similar to what is observed in man. All activity assays show the same qualitative profile, the FVIIa clot assay being the most sensitive assay. The TEG data obtained in vivo are in accordance with the values obtained after in vitro spiking. The data support the use of hemophilia dogs for evaluating the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles of FVIIa related proteins.

Author notes

Disclosure:Employment: Mirella Ezban, Lone Frost Larsen, Dorthe Viuff1, and Judi Moss1 work for Novo Nordisk. Research Funding: Novo Nordisk provided funding for this work.

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