Target product profile for drugs to prevent pre-eclampsia

Book excerpt: TPP for drugs to prevent pre-eclampsia Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia affect 4.6% and 1.4% of pregnant women, respectively. They account for the majority of maternal deaths and stillbirths due to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Pre-eclampsia can also negatively affect fetal growth, and increase the risk of preterm birth and fetal death. There is an urgent need to identify new agents to prevent pre-eclampsia. An initial target product profile (TPP) for drugs to prevent pre-eclampsia was developed and published by external parties. Following the identification of an unmet public health need, WHO has considered the already published TPP as the basis for developing a WHO TPP. This WHO TPP describes the key characteristics and desired attributes of preventive agents that should be administered to pregnant women identified as being at increased risk of developing pre-eclampsia, accompanied by monitoring for the development of pre-eclampsia. This TPP outlines minimal and preferred characteristics of a medicine that should: - prevent the development of pre- eclampsia; - have a good safety profile during pregnancy; - be commenced early in pregnancy (before 20 weeks’ gestation) and continued throughout pregnancy and postpartum as required; - be suitable for administration in any health care setting where pregnant women receive antenatal care, including in LMICs.