Population pharmacokinetics is the study of pharmacokinetics at the population level in which data from all individuals in a population are evaluated simultaneously, most commonly using a non-linear mixed-effects model. Because it approaches the population as a whole rather than each patient individually, it allows for greater flexibility in the number of samples and the timing of sample collection. The standard bioequivalence assessment method requires a rigorous sampling regime to obtain complete individual time-concentration profiles, which is not always feasible.
Our work aimed to develop an approach for bioequivalence assessment using an integrated population pharmacokinetic model and to compare it with a standard and established bioequivalence assessment method.
Bioequivalence was assessed using the standard method for a clinical study with efavirenz in 16 volunteers. A non-compartmental analysis was used to calculate the test ratio to reference formulation and 90% confidence intervals for the pharmacokinetic parameters Cmax, AUCt, and AUCinf. The lower interval limit of the Cmax parameter was outside of the acceptable range of 80% - 125%. Therefore bioequivalence was not demonstrated. Four population pharmacokinetic models were developed based on the same clinical study. We evaluated the models and selected the most suitable one to describe our data. We chose a two-compartment model with first-order absorption. The values of the pharmacokinetic parameters describing the model and their uncertainty were obtained by sampling importance resampling. We randomly sampled 1000 parameter sets from a normal distribution and used them to simulate 1000 bioequivalence studies. For all 1000 studies, we calculated the ratio between the test and reference formulation for the pharmacokinetic parameters Cmax, AUCt, and AUCinf by non-compartmental analysis. From the ratios, the mean and the 90% confidence interval were calculated. For all parameters, the intervals were within the acceptable range, and it can be concluded that the two formulations are bioequivalent.
The differences in the bioequivalence assessments show that the developed population pharmacokinetic model poorly describes the absorption phase and the maximum concentration.
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