Physiologically Based Biopharmaceutics Model of Vildagliptin Modified Release (MR) Tablets to Predict In Vivo Performance and Establish Clinically Relevant Dissolution Specifications

From lab-to-clinic with model informed formulation development: a case study of hydroxyzine SR tablets

Model Informed Formulation Development (MIFD) uses physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling and other in silico tools to facilitate new product development. These tools help set target profiles, predict in vivo formulation performance, guide iterative development, define dissolution parameters, and convince the regulatory agencies about a drug's safety and efficacy.This study involves development of a sustained release formulation for Hydroxyzine, an anti-histamine with sedation as a significant side effect. The aim was to design a formulation that releases the drug slowly, reducing the peak plasma concentration without losing on the effectiveness. A preliminary absorption model was developed using immediate release formulation data, and various hypothetical dissolution profiles were evaluated in this model. The new drug product, manufactured using MatrixealTM technology, underwent preliminary bioequivalence (BE) studies in healthy volunteers. These results were used to refine the model and further modify the formulation, whose performance was predicted via virtual BE studies. Confirmatory BE studies with 70 volunteers under fasting state validated the new formulation. The model also established clinically relevant dissolution specifications and assessed the food effect on the drug product.This work showcases the application of PBPK modelling in developing new modified release drug product of Hydroxyzine.

Challenges in Predicting Colonic Luminal and Tissue Concentrations of Mesalamine and Acetyl Mesalamine using Physiologically Based Biopharmaceutics Modeling

Mesalamine is a standard first-line therapy for managing chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Despite its established efficacy, the precise mechanism of action within enterocytes remains unclear. This study aimed to develop and validate Physiologically Based Biopharmaceutics Models (PBBM) for mesalamine (5-ASA) and its metabolite, acetyl mesalamine (Ac-5-ASA), to predict drug concentrations in plasma, colonic lumen, and colonic tissue of healthy subjects and compare the results to measured concentrations. Using the Simcyp Simulator (V22), the models accurately predicted plasma concentrations for various formulations, including intravenous, oral immediate-release and controlled release formulations within a two-fold range. Results also captured the intestinal and hepatic metabolism converting mesalamine to acetyl mesalamine. However, significant discrepancies were observed in predicting luminal and tissue concentrations, with underpredictions for Claversal and Pentasa formulations reaching factors of up to 506 and 55 for 5-ASA and Ac-5-ASA in colonic tissue, respectively. These discrepancies highlight limitations in current modeling approaches, particularly in simulating drug accumulation within enterocytes. Despite these challenges, this investigation highlights both the potential benefits and the complexities of using PBBMs. Future work should focus on generating definitive N-acetyl transferase (NAT1) abundance data with an in-vitro in-vivo extrapolation link, improving approaches to better explore local drug concentrations in the gastrointestinal tract, and addressing the gap in accurately predicting luminal and tissue concentrations in the colon.

Novel analytical solutions for convolution in compartmental pharmacokinetic models and application to non-bioequivalent formulations

Deconvolution and convolution are powerful tools that allow decomposition and reconstruction, respectively, of plasma versus time profiles from input and impulse functions. While deconvolution have commonly used compartmental approaches (e.g., Wagner-Nelson or Loo-Riegelman), convolution most typically used the convolution integral which can be solved with numerical methods. In 2005, an analytical solution for one-compartment pharmacokinetic was proposed and has been widely used ever since. However, to the best of our knowledge, analytical solutions for drugs distributed in more than one compartment have not been reported yet. In this paper, analytical solutions for compartmental convolution from both original and exact Loo-Riegelman approaches were developed and evaluated for different scenarios. While convolution from original approach was slightly more precise than that from the exact Loo-Riegelman, both methods were extremely accurate for reconstruction of plasma profiles after respective deconvolutions. Nonetheless, convolution from exact Loo-Riegelman was easier to interpret and to be manipulated mathematically. In fact, convolution solutions for three and more compartments can be easily written with this approach. Finally, our convolution analytical solution was applied to predict the failure in bioequivalence for levonorgestrel, demonstrating that equations in this paper may be useful tools for pharmaceutical scientists.

HSPiP, Computational, and Thermodynamic Model-Based Optimized Solvents for Subcutaneous Delivery of Tolterodine Tartrate and GastroPlus‑Based In Vivo Prediction in Humans: Part II

In part I, we reported Hansen solubility parameters (HSP, HSPiP program), experimental solubility at varied temperatures for TOTA delivery. Here, we studied dose volume selection, stability, pH, osmolality, dispersion, clarity, and viscosity of the explored combinations (I-VI). Ex vivo permeation and deposition studies were performed to observe relative diffusion rate from the injected site in rat skin. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) study was conducted to support ex vivo findings. Moreover, GastroPlus predicted in vivo parameters in humans and the impact of various critical factors on pharmacokinetic parameters (PK). Immediate release product (IR) contained 60% of PEG400 whereas controlled release formulation (CR) contained PEG400 (60%), water (10%) and d-limonene (30%) to deliver 2 mg of TOTA. GastroPlus predicted the plasma drug concentration of weakly basic TOTA as function of pH (from pH 2.0 to 9). The cumulative drug permeation and drug deposition were found to be in the order as B-VI˃ C-VI˃A-VI across rat skin. This finding was further supported with CLSM. Moreover, IR and CR were predicted to achieve Cmax of 0.0038 µg/ mL and 0.00023 µg/mL, respectively, after sub-Q delivery. Added limonene in CR extended the plasma drug concentration over period of 12 h as predicted in GastroPlus. Parameters sensitivity analysis (PSA) assessment predicted that sub-Q blood flow rate is the only factor affecting PK parameters in IR formulation whereas this was insignificant for CR. Thus, sub-Q delivery CR would be promising alternative with ease of delivery to children and aged patient.

A Comprehensive Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Model for Predicting Vildagliptin Pharmacokinetics: Insights into Dosing in Renal Impairment

Physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling is of great importance in the field of medicine. This study aims to construct a PBPK model, which can provide reliable drug pharmacokinetic (PK) predictions in both healthy and chronic kidney disease (CKD) subjects. To do so, firstly a review of the literature was thoroughly conducted and the PK information of vildagliptin was collected. PBPK modeling software, PK-Sim®, was then used to build and assess the IV, oral, and drug-specific models. Next, the average fold error, visual predictive checks, and predicted/observed ratios were used for the assessment of the robustness of the model for all the essential PK parameters. This evaluation demonstrated that all PK parameters were within an acceptable limit of error, i.e., 2 fold. Also to display the influence of CKD on the total and unbound AUC (the area under the plasma concentration-time curve) and to make modifications in dose, the analysis results of the model on this aspect were further examined. This PBPK model has successfully depicted the variations of PK of vildagliptin in healthy subjects and patients with CKD, which can be useful for medical practitioners in dosage optimization in renal disease patients.

Conventional vs Mechanistic IVIVC: A Comparative Study in Establishing Dissolution Safe Space for Extended Release Formulations

The use of in vitro-in vivo correlation (IVIVC) for extended release oral dosage forms is an important technique that can avoid potential clinical studies. IVIVC has been a topic of discussion over the past two decades since the inception of USFDA guidance. It has been routinely used for biowaivers, establishment of dissolution safe space and clinically relevant dissolution specifications, for supporting site transfers, scale-up and post approval changes. Although conventional or mathematical IVIVC is routinely used, other approach such as mechanistic IVIVC can be of attractive choice as it integrates all the physiological aspects. In the present study, we have performed comparative evaluation of mechanistic and conventional IVIVC for establishment of dissolution safe space using divalproex sodium and tofacitinib extended release formulations as case examples. Conventional IVIVC was established using Phoenix and mechanistic IVIVC was set up using Gastroplus physiologically based biopharmaceutics model (PBBM). Virtual dissolution profiles with varying release rates were constructed around target dissolution profile using Weibull function. After internal and external validation, the virtual dissolution profiles were integrated into mechanistic and conventional IVIVC and safe space was established by absolute error and T/R ratio's methods. The results suggest that mechanistic IVIVC yielded wider safe space as compared to conventional IVIVC. The results suggest that a mechanistic approach of establishing IVIVC may be a flexible approach as it integrates physiological aspects. These findings suggest that mechanistic IVIVC has wider potential as compared to conventional IVIVC to gain wider dissolution safe space and thus can avoid potential clinical studies.

Prediction of Human Pharmacokinetics of E0703, a Novel Radioprotective Agent, Using Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling and an Interspecies Extrapolation Approach

E0703, a new steroidal compound optimized from estradiol, significantly increased cell proliferation and the survival rate of KM mice and beagles after ionizing radiation. In this study, we characterize its preclinical pharmacokinetics (PK) and predict its human PK using a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model. The preclinical PK of E0703 was studied in mice and Rhesus monkeys. Asian human clearance (CL) values for E0703 were predicted from various allometric methods. The human PK profiles of E0703 (30 mg) were predicted by the PBPK model in Gastro Plus software 9.8 (SimulationsPlus, Lancaster, CA, USA). Furthermore, tissue distribution and the human PK profiles of different administration dosages and forms were predicted. The 0.002 L/h of CL and 0.005 L of Vss in mice were calculated and optimized from observed PK data. The plasma exposure of E0703 was availably predicted by the CL using the simple allometry (SA) method. The plasma concentration-time profiles of other dosages (20 and 40 mg) and two oral administrations (30 mg) were well-fitted to the observed values. In addition, the PK profile of target organs for E0703 exhibited a higher peak concentration (Cmax) and AUC than plasma. The developed E0703-PBPK model, which is precisely applicable to multiple species, benefits from further clinical development to predict PK in humans.

Approaches to Account for Colon Absorption in Physiologically Based Biopharmaceutics Modeling of Extended-Release Drug Products

The rate and extent of colon absorption are important determinants of the in vivo performance of extended-release (ER) drug products. The ability to appropriately predict this at different stages of development using mechanistic physiologically based biopharmaceutic modeling (PBBM) is highly desirable. This investigation aimed to evaluate the prediction performance of three different approaches to account for colon absorption in predictions of the in vivo performance of ER drug product variants with different in vitro release profiles. This was done by mechanistic predictions of the absorption and plasma exposure of the ER drug products using GastroPlus and GI-Sim for five drugs with different degrees of colon absorption limitations in humans. Colon absorption was accounted for in the predictions using three different approaches: (1) by an a priori approach using the default colon models, (2) by fitting the colon absorption scaling factors to the observed plasma concentration-time profiles after direct administration to the colon in humans, or (3) from the ER drug product variant with the slowest in vitro release profile. The prediction performance was evaluated based on the percentage prediction error and the average absolute prediction error (AAPE). Two levels of acceptance criteria corresponding to highly accurate (AAPE ≤ 20%) and accurate (AAPE 20-50%) predictions were defined prior to the evaluation. For the a priori approach, the relative bioavailability (Frel), AUC0-t, and Cmax of the ER drug product variants for the low to medium colon absorption limitation risk drugs was accurately predicted with an AAPE range of 11-53 and 8-59% for GastroPlus and GI-Sim, respectively. However, the prediction performance was poor for the high colon absorption limitation risk drugs. Moreover, accounting for the human regional colon absorption data in the models did not improve the prediction performance. In contrast, using the colon absorption scaling factors derived from the slowest ER variant significantly improved the prediction performance regardless of colon absorption limitation, with a majority of the predictions meeting the high accuracy criteria. For the slowest ER approach, the AAPE ranges were 5-24 and 5-32% for GastroPlus and GI-Sim, respectively, excluding the low permeability drug. In conclusion, the a priori PBBM can be used during candidate selection and early product design to predict the in vivo performance of ER drug products for low to medium colon absorption limitation risk drugs with sufficient accuracy. The results also indicate a limited value in performing human regional absorption studies in which the drug is administered to the colon as a bolus to support PBBM development for ER drug products. Instead, by performing an early streamlined relative bioavailability study with the slowest relevant ER in vitro release profile, a highly accurate PBBM suitable for ER predictions for commercial and regulatory applications can be developed, except for permeability-limited drugs.