Oral drug absorption and the Biopharmaceutics Classification System

Abstract

Bioavailability (BA) and bioequivalence (BE) play a central role in pharmaceutical product development and BE studies are presently being conducted for New Drug Application (NDAs) of new compounds, in supplementary NDAsfor new medical indications and product line extensions, in Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDAs) of generic products and in applications for scale-up and post-approval changes. The Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) has been developed to provide a scientific approach for classifying drug compounds based on solubility as related to dose and intestinal permeability in combination with the dissolution properties of the oral immediate release (IR) dosage form. The aim of BCS is to provide a regulatory tool for replacing certain BE studies by accurate in vitro dissolution tests. The aim of the present review is to present the status of BCS and discuss its future application in pharmaceutical product development. This will be discussed in relation to novel findings in human intestinal absorption, permeability and solubility. The future application of BCS is likely to be increasingly important if the BCS borders for certain Class II and III drugs are extended. The BCS is also a simple tool in early drug development to determine the rate-limiting step in the oral absorption process, which has facilitated the information between different experts involved in the overall drug development process. In the future, this increased awareness of a proper biopharmaceutical characterization of new drugs may result in drug molecules with a sufficiently high permeability, solubility and dissolution rate that will automatically increase the importance of BCS as a regulatory tool over time.