Responsible Center: NASA JSC
Grant Monitor: Goodwin, Thomas
Center Contact:
thomas.j.goodwin@nasa.gov
Unique ID: 7794
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Solicitation / Funding Source: 2004 Space Life Sciences 04-OBPR-01: ILSRA 2004
Project Type: FLIGHT
Flight Program: Shuttle/ISS
TechPort: No |
No. of Post Docs: 0
No. of PhD Candidates: 1
No. of Master's Candidates: 0
No. of Bachelor's Candidates: 0
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No. of PhD Degrees: 1
No. of Master's Degrees: 0
No. of Bachelor's Degrees: 0
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| Human Research Program Elements: |
(1) HHC:Human Health Countermeasures
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| Human Research Program Risks: |
(1) Pharm:Risk of Ineffective or Toxic Medications During Long-Duration Exploration Spaceflight
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| Human Research Program Gaps: |
(1) Pharm-101:We need to determine the optimal packaging/storage strategy for medications in space that balances the needs of mitigating toxicity, preserving effectiveness, and minimizing resource “costs” (mass, volume, power, etc.).
(2) Pharm-201:We need to establish an exploration formulary that identifies medications with maximal clinical benefit and minimal resource “costs” (mass, volume, etc.).
(3) Pharm-301:We need to categorize all medications that are included in the iterative Exploration Candidate Formulary based upon the current state of knowledge of their effectiveness and safety in the spaceflight environment.
(4) Pharm-401:We need to perform further research to understand and characterize the active pharmaceutical ingredient and degradation profiles of medications for which we have low to moderate confidence in their safety and effectiveness for exploration missions.
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| Flight Assignment/Project Notes: |
ISS
STS-121, STS-117, STS-122, STS-126 |
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| Task Description: |
Data gathered from past Space Shuttle missions suggest that some of the medications packed in the Shuttle's medical pack degrade even after relatively brief periods (less than 20 days) of space flight. The observed degradation included both physical and chemical characteristics of medicine formulations. The degradation was sufficient to influence FDA stipulated shelf-life for these formulations and may result in a loss of potency. Physical and chemical instability of medications could render treatments with degraded drugs ineffective for assurance of optimal crew health during long duration space exploration missions. An evaluation of subjective data on medications used by crewmembers during space flight indicated that eight percent of all treatments administered in the Space Shuttle program were reported ineffective. Pharmaceutical instability may modify effectiveness and safety, and is one possible cause of the ineffectiveness of treatments. Degradation of food products will also render them ineffective in providing health and energy sustenance. The stability of medications and foods used by the crew, therefore, must be adequate to facilitate safe exploration of space in the future. The Stability of Pharmaceuticals, constituent Stability payload investigation, evaluated mission critical medications understand issues relating to loss of potency and resultant impact on shelf-life of medications in space.
See also http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/Stability.html |
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| Research Impact/Earth Benefits: |
The results of this investigation will help understand the effects of adverse environments on stability and shelf-life of medications, this information will be useful for long-range military operations and Earth based explorers make choices for efficacious treatments in remote and adverse habitats like the Antarctic, arctic and multiple world terrains.
With the advent of emerging global pharmaceutical supply industry and adverse environment war-zone activities, understanding shelf-life characteristics of medications will assure safe and effective therapeutics in the future. |
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