Published in:
British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 74 (2012) 6, Seite 1033-1044
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1111/j.1365-2125.2012.04296.x
ISSN:
0306-5251;
1365-2125
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
<jats:p><jats:bold>WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT</jats:bold></jats:p><jats:p>• The microdose administration of novel drug candidates to humans in early development is currently undergoing evaluation as a cost‐efficient approach to the early assessment of pharmacokinetics (PK) before the commitment of resources required to support formal phase 1 studies.</jats:p><jats:p>• The microdose approach assumes that PK can be extrapolated linearly over the full range of exposures achieved with sub‐pharmacological doses up to the therapeutic dose range.</jats:p><jats:p>• Few microdose studies have been undertaken in the context of pharmaceutical drug development and their precise role in the selection of candidates for further clinical evaluation at therapeutic doses has yet to be fully substantiated.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS</jats:bold></jats:p><jats:p>• The present study describes the elective application of a human microdose study with a novel EP<jats:sub>1</jats:sub> receptor antagonist, GSK269984A, to address a critical development liability posed by uncertainty with respect to the predicted human PK profile.</jats:p><jats:p>• Microdose data revealed a favourable PK profile, consistent with a clinically acceptable dosing regimen. These data support the value of undertaking a microdose study early in the drug discovery process to facilitate risk evaluation and to enable decision‐making.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>AIM</jats:bold> The primary objective was to evaluate the pharmacokinetics (PK) of the novel EP<jats:sub>1</jats:sub> antagonist GSK269984A in human volunteers after a single oral and intravenous (i.v.) microdose (100 µg).</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>METHOD</jats:bold> GSK269984A was administered to two groups of healthy human volunteers as a single oral (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic>= 5) or i.v. (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic>= 5) microdose (100 µg). Blood samples were collected for up to 24 h and the parent drug concentrations were measured in separated plasma using a validated high pressure liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry method following solid phase extraction.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>RESULTS</jats:bold> Following the i.v. microdose, the geometric mean values for clearance (CL), steady‐state volume of distribution (<jats:italic>V</jats:italic><jats:sub>ss</jats:sub>) and terminal elimination half‐life (<jats:italic>t</jats:italic><jats:sub>1/2</jats:sub>) of GSK269984A were 9.8 l h<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>, 62.8 l and 8.2 h. <jats:italic>C</jats:italic><jats:sub>max</jats:sub> and AUC(0,∞) were 3.2 ng ml<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> and 10.2 ng ml<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> h, respectively; the corresponding oral parameters were 1.8 ng ml<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> and 9.8 ng ml<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> h, respectively. Absolute oral bioavailability was estimated to be 95%. These data were inconsistent with predictions of human PK based on allometric scaling of <jats:italic>in vivo</jats:italic> PK data from three pre‐clinical species (rat, dog and monkey).</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>CONCLUSION</jats:bold> For drug development programmes characterized by inconsistencies between pre‐clinical <jats:italic>in vitro</jats:italic> metabolic and <jats:italic>in vivo</jats:italic> PK data, and where uncertainty exists with respect to allometric predictions of the human PK profile, these data support the early application of a human microdose study to facilitate the selection of compounds for further clinical development.</jats:p>