How Consistent are Anti-Infective Drug Dosing Recommendations Across Three European Paediatric Formularies?

Drug dosing recommendations in paediatrics are mainly based on the age and bodyweight of the child. Because of the limited amount of label information, several paediatric drug formularies have been developed. This study compares anti-infective drug dosing recommendations across three European formularies.

Recommendations from three paediatric formularies (German Pediatric Formulary [GPF], SwissPedDose [SPD] and the British National Formulary for Children [BNF]) were collected. Using population growth curves, we simulated one child for each month from 1 month up to 18 years of age. The recommendations from each formulary were used to calculate doses for each simulated child. Equivalence and difference in calculated doses were analysed.

In total, dosing recommendations for 34 anti-infective substances were collected with 74 corresponding indications, which resulted in 47,154 calculated doses. The mean (± standard deviation) proportion of equivalent doses (difference ≤10%) across all three formularies was 40% (±16), while for pairwise comparisons it was 53% (±19) for GPF versus BNF, 67% (±14) for GPF versus SPD and 52% (±19) for SPD versus BNF. The median [25th quantile, 75th quantile] differences in daily doses across all three formularies were 0%, [0, 26] while for pairwise comparisons it was 4% [0, 32] for GPF versus BNF, 0% [0, 17] for GPF versus SPD and 7% [0, 33] for SPD versus BNF.

The majority of recommended anti-infective drug doses were consistent, with the highest equivalence found between GPF and SPD. Maintaining formularies is resource intensive; therefore, a common standard in Europe could prove beneficial when moving towards digitalisation of the healthcare systems.