Eight Drugs a Week Podcast

Fungal infections remain a stubborn clinical problem: treatment options are limited, and the margin between an ineffective dose and a toxic one is often narrow. Getting antifungal exposure right for each patient is not a formality; it can be the difference between clearing an infection and losing ground to it. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) offers clinicians a way to walk that line with more co...

What do Arthurian legend, a medieval convent, and the future of precision medicine have in common? They all converge in Rennes, France this September - and if this episode is anything to go by, the IATDMCT-SFPT Joint Congress 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most ambitious meetings our community has ever produced. In a first for France, the IATDMCT and the French Society of Pharmacology and The...

Adherence to medication is the very basic level we wish to reach in patient care. Yet for many patients taking drugs every day (sometimes several times a day, over long periods of time, this is far from straightforward. Treatment failure and adverse drug reactions can result not from the wrong medicine, but simply from inconsistent intake. Non-adherence is rarely intentional; it is a complex, mult...

Tuberculosis remains one of the world's most persistent infectious diseases, and despite decades of available treatments, achieving cure remains a long and winding road. The challenge isn't just the disease itself – there is also a notable difference in how patients respond to TB drugs. Where pharmacokinetic variability can range 20-50 fold and the complex multidrug regimens, therapeutic drug moni...

The human microbiome, a complex community of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses, doesn't just passively coexist with the drugs we take; it actively participates in a bidirectional relationship that can impact drug efficacy and toxicity. From immunosuppressants in transplant patients to medicines in other fields of medicine, it is becoming apparent that the microbiome has been a missing piece i...

We gather the two chairs of the upcoming IATDMCT annual meeting in Singapore, Sophie Stocker and Jana Stojanova, plus Cindy Lau, who contribute to the organization of the young scientists' part of the event to discuss the content, urbi et orbi, of our annual meeting. In this episode we'll hear about: The journey from an inspiration to the building of a real conference dedicated to creating innovat...

We gather the two chairs of the upcoming IATDMCT annual meeting in Singapore, Sophie Stocker and Jana Stojanova, plus Cindy Lau, who contribute to the organization of the young scientists' part of the event to discuss the content, urbi et orbi, of our annual meeting. In this episode we'll hear about: The journey from an inspiration to the building of a real conference dedicated to creating innovat...

Pharmacogenetics now surrounds us and is an efficient tool to prevent disease or to guide drug therapy. By studying polymorphisms in the genes coding for metabolism enzymes and drug transporters, we can have clues to help choose the right drug or adjust drug dosage. Not to mention that pharmacogenetics is the ideal companion for therapeutic drug monitoring for a comprehensive treatment optimizatio...

Given we traditionally only monitored particular antibiotics to spare toxicity, and that beta lactams were widely considered such safe drugs, it was once difficult to imagine this drug class would become important TDM candidates. A bit more than a decade ago we started to see the first reports about augmented renal clearance in critically ill patients, often in situations in which antibiotic treat...

This time, it's the right time - not a second time, but a unique time - to take the road to Banff, Canada, for the 22nd edition of the IATDMCT annual congress.  This time, following a very successful virtual edition in 2020, we are very glad to be meeting in person. And what a place to meet! - surrounded by Banff's mountainous splendour. We are so grateful the congress organizing committee accepte...

There was a time when we performed laborious pharmacokinetic hand calculations to tailor drug dosages and regimens – a practice that can still be useful for those brave enough to perform logarithmic calculator manipulations. These days, we are fortunate to have an increasing number of software tools to help us with the task, however many rely on population pharmacokinetic models typically built wi...

This episode we're excited to introduce you to the young guns, the bright minds of the Young Scientist Committee of the IATDMCT, who are making waves in this ever-evolving field.   Our guests are Lea Wagmann, Hualin Cai, and Sumith Mathew, each bringing their unique perspectives and experiences from Germany, China, and India, respectively. From their early inspirations to their current endeavours,...

This episode is about a fairly recent development in TDM and clinical toxicology that has huge potential, which has actually been used for many decades. It was recently the 50 th anniversary of the Guthrie method, where dried blood spots are used to screen inborn errors of metabolism in neonatal infants. Thanks to instrumental developments, dried blood spots, and more generally microsampling appro...

The recent congress in Oslo was a huge success. We were very glad to catch up with colleagues and hear about some really excellent science. We also bumped into Steve Wong and Phil Walson, first and third presidents of the IATDMCT, and we were delighted they obliged us with an interview about the origins of the Association.   Like with any good origin story, Steve and Phil are true superheroes. Bot...

In this bonus episode, we delve into the upcoming IATDMCT congress that will take place September 24th to 27th in Oslo, Norway . It promises to be an exciting event with varied and highly novel sessions. Joining us today are esteemed IATDMCT scientists and local members of the congress organizing committee: Stein Bergan, Ida Robertson, and Anders Åsberg. We delve into their motivations to host the...

This episode is about the TDM of antiretroviral drugs, an area with a boom in research output in the late 90s and early 2000s, generating enough randomized controls trials for a substantial systematic Cochrane review on the topic (a rare thing for TDM research!). It's an ever-evolving space, where drug regimens are continually refined with newer drug options with fewer adverse effects. However, we...

This episode is about the TDM of anticancer therapies, a space where there is a sense of frustration about body-size based dosing, but while concentration-based promises to make a difference to clinical care, it still feels that progress has been less than satisfying. Florian opens the episode with an ode to oncologists, a song from the heart to say: 'We can work it out!'     Our guests today are...

This episode is about the TDM of biologics, a therapeutic class that only really emerged into widespread use about 20 years ago – but that as a class represents a breakthrough for many therapeutic challenges. This area has some differences compared to traditional TDM of small molecules, and although it's established for some biologics, the role for TDM in the space is, in a sense, still being dete...

This episode we travel around the world and hear from Paula Schaiquevich (Argentina) and Smita Pattanaik (India). These impressive women are well known IATDMCT members and for building successful TDM services from scratch. Paula and Smita share excellent advice about where to start, how to grow, some typical challenges and how to face these.   In this episode we hear about: expecting 'more pitfall...

In our inaugural episode of Eight Drugs a Week we are very lucky to be joined by two former IATDMCT Presidents, Loralie Langman and Pierre Marquet. Both are very well known for their work with immunosuppressant drugs, particularly in the context of transplantation.   In this episode we talk about: Planning the ideal immunosuppressant monitoring program in solid organ transplant recipients Why Fran...

Welcome to Eight Drugs a Week! Join us on this journey as we catch up with colleagues around the world and discuss new developments in clinical pharmacology.   Stay tuned for our inaugural episode, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts 😉   Eight Drugs a Week is supported by the International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology (IATDMCT). The personal views of...