研究一个新的药物是否对已经上市的药物或作为临床治疗的合并用药在药物代谢方面的相互作用,或者相反,已经临床使用的药品是否影响所研究新药的代谢消除都是非常重要的,甚至本身不参与代谢的药物会对合并用药的代谢产生重要的影响。出于这些原因有必要对药物相互作用,尤其是对那些不能经代谢完全消除的研究药物的相互作用进行研究。
对于潜在药物相互作用的临床研究应当是经过周密设计的,有针对性地选择受试者或患者,按照在The clinical investigation of potential drug-drug interactions should be a systematic process of well designed trials performed upon appropriately selected cohorts of subjects or patients, receiving both interacting drugs under conditions of dosage and administration that are intended to reproduce the proposed or approved therapeutic dosing recommendations. Such studies should address relevant pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic endpoints and employ suitable statistical analyses.