Aaps J
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Comparative Study
Highly variable drugs: observations from bioequivalence data submitted to the FDA for new generic drug applications.
It is widely believed that acceptable bioequivalence studies of drugs with high within-subject pharmacokinetic variability must enroll higher numbers of subjects than studies of drugs with lower variability. We studied the scope of this issue within US generic drug regulatory submissions. ⋯ About 60% of the highly variable drugs we surveyed were highly variable due to drug substance pharmacokinetic characteristics. For about 20% of the highly variable drugs, it appeared that formulation performance contributed to the high variability.
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Comparative Study
Pharmacokinetics of 1,4-butanediol in rats: bioactivation to gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, interaction with ethanol, and oral bioavailability.
1,4-Butanediol (BD), a substance of abuse, is bioactivated to gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), but its fundamental pharmacokinetics (PK) have not been characterized. Because this bioactivation is partly mediated by alcohol dehydrogenase, we hypothesized that there may also be a metabolic interaction between ethanol (ETOH) and BD. We therefore studied, in rats, the plasma PK of GHB, BD and ETOH each at two intravenous (IV) doses, when each substance was given alone, and when GHB or BD was co-administered with ETOH. ⋯ GHB (192 +/- 28 min vs. 117 +/- 2 min, respectively, p < 0.05). Relative to IV dosing, oral BD produced similar but more variable LRR effects. These results may provide a quantitative PK framework for the understanding of the toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics of both BD and GHB.