Optimal Design for the Testing of Anti-malarial Drugs

In dose-response experiments involving anti-malarial drugs the number of maturing parasites is recorded but the number of parasites originally present in the blood sample is unknown. This situation, commonly referred to as Wadley’s problem, can be modelled by means of a particular Poisson distribution. In this paper designs for which the parameters of interest or functions of those parameters are estimated as precisely as possible are developed. In particular locallyD-D ₃ -and c-optimal designs are constructed and compared and the D₃-optimal design is used to provide a bench mark for appraising existing procedures.