From the regulatory point of view a strong link between an animal model and human
pharmacodynamics of biological drugs is very important to qualify the model as “relevant”.
Consistent changes in cell population between human physiology and animal model gain value of
this model which then can be pharmacodynamically “relevant” from the regulatory point
of view. Consequently, the aim of this study was to determine how similar to human observations
is the effect of selected biological drugs on blood cells in a pig model. The study was to carry out
a comparative analysis of the variability of selected biochemical and hematological parameters of
the blood after administration of five different human therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs)
after a single subcutaneous (SC) dose in breeding pigs. The tested drugs were siltuximab (Sylvant®), omalizumab (Xolair®), infliximab (Inflectra®), pembrolizumab (Keytruda®), and vedolizumab (Entyvio®) given in a single 1 mg/kg SC injection. Each of the tested drugs exerted a significant effect on at least two of the tested parameters three weeks after the administration.
Siltuximab significantly influenced 9 of the analyzed parameters. Vedolizumab significantly
influenced 8 of the analyzed parameters. Infliximab had the lowest impact of all the tested drugs,
as it significantly influenced only two of the analyzed parameters. The study has proved that
the impact of mAbs on the analyzed parameters can be significantly extended over time.
This requires the monitoring of hematological parameters in the pig model even many weeks after administration of a drug in a relatively small dose.