How was the first-in-human dose set for approved monoclonal antibodies?
From the FDA and EMA reviews of all 117 approved monoclonal antibodies. Each answer links to the regulator's own sentence.
Approval reviews rarely explain the first human dose: that rationale is in the IND, which is confidential. These are the methods regulators expect for monoclonal antibodies, each step quoted from the guidance:
Use pharmacology data (target binding, receptor occupancy, in vitro human cells, PK/PD modelling) to estimate the lowest dose expected to have any biological effect (MABEL) and the active dose (PAD), and, for healthy volunteers, start at an exposure below the PAD unless robustly justified.
Read the sourced method →Find the highest dose with no adverse effects (NOAEL) in each animal species, convert it to a human equivalent dose, usually by body surface area, pick the most appropriate species, then divide by a safety factor (default 10) to get the maximum recommended starting dose.
Read the sourced method →HNSTD/STD10 is the method used for anticancer drugs in patients: the start dose is one-sixth of the highest non-severely toxic dose (HNSTD) in non-rodents, or one-tenth of the dose severely toxic to 10% of rodents (STD10), scaled by body surface area. The aim is a dose that is pharmacologically active yet reasonably safe.
Read the sourced method →Precedent by precedent
117 approved monoclonal antibodies, with the reviewers' own words.