Pharmacokinetics of Single- and Multiple-Dose Emtricitabine in Healthy Male Chinese Volunteers

Abstract

Emtricitabine (FTC) is used for the treatment of HIV infection and pre-exposure chemoprophylaxis. It is often used in combination with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF). This study was designed to evaluate FTC pharmacokinetics in healthy male Chinese volunteers. Sixty subjects were recruited into this single-centre, randomised, open-label study and randomly received single (groups A, B and C) or multiple oral doses (once daily for 6 days; groups D, E and F) of 200-mg FTC capsules alone (A and D), or combined with 300-mg TDF tablets (B and E), or 200 mg of FTC plus 300 mg of TDF with a high-fat diet (C and F), respectively. FTC was well-tolerated in all groups. After a single dose, there were no differences in the mean AUC_0-_∞ values; however, there were significant differences in the mean T_max values (1.05, 1.40 and 2.10 h for groups A, B and C, respectively; p < 0.05). In the multiple-dose study, our results were significantly different from published t_1/2 values following single-dose FTC.