Discovery of an intravenous hepatoselective glucokinase activator for the treatment of inpatient hyperglycemia.

Glucokinase (hexokinase IV) continues to be a compelling target for the treatment of type 2 diabetes given the wealth of supporting human genetics data and numerous reports of robust clinical glucose lowering in patients treated with small molecule allosteric activators. Recent work has demonstrated the ability of hepatoselective activators to deliver glucose lowering efficacy with minimal risk of hypoglycemia. While orally administered agents require a considerable degree of passive permeability to promote suitable exposures, there is no such restriction on intravenously delivered drugs. Therefore, minimization of membrane diffusion in the context of an intravenously agent should ensure optimal hepatic targeting and therapeutic index. This work details the identification a hepatoselective GKA exhibiting the aforementioned properties.

pH-Dependent solubility and permeability criteria for provisional biopharmaceutics classification (BCS and BDDCS) in early drug discovery.

The Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) is a scientific framework that provides a basis for predicting the oral absorption of drugs. These concepts have been extended in the Biopharmaceutics Drug Disposition Classification System (BDDCS) to explain the potential mechanism of drug clearance and understand the effects of uptake and efflux transporters on absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination. The objective of present work is to establish criteria for provisional biopharmaceutics classification using pH-dependent passive permeability and aqueous solubility data generated from high throughput screening methodologies in drug discovery settings. The apparent permeability across monolayers of clonal cell line of Madin-Darby canine kidney cells, selected for low endogenous efflux transporter expression, was measured for a set of 105 drugs, with known BCS and BDDCS class. The permeability at apical pH 6.5 for acidic drugs and at pH 7.4 for nonacidic drugs showed a good correlation with the fraction absorbed in human (Fa). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was utilized to define the permeability class boundary. At permeability ≥ 5 × 10(-6) cm/s, the accuracy of predicting Fa of ≥ 0.90 was 87%. Also, this cutoff showed more than 80% sensitivity and specificity in predicting the literature permeability classes (BCS), and the metabolism classes (BDDCS). The equilibrium solubility of a subset of 49 drugs was measured in pH 1.2 medium, pH 6.5 phosphate buffer, and in FaSSIF medium (pH 6.5). Although dose was not considered, good concordance of the measured solubility with BCS and BDDCS solubility class was achieved, when solubility at pH 1.2 was used for acidic compounds and FaSSIF solubility was used for basic, neutral, and zwitterionic compounds. Using a cutoff of 200 µg/mL, the data set suggested a 93% sensitivity and 86% specificity in predicting both the BCS and BDDCS solubility classes. In conclusion, this study identified pH-dependent permeability and solubility criteria that can be used to assign provisional biopharmaceutics class at early stage of the drug discovery process. Additionally, such a classification system will enable discovery scientists to assess the potential limiting factors to oral absorption, as well as help predict the drug disposition mechanisms and potential drug-drug interactions.

Development and evaluation of novel solid nanodispersion system for oral delivery of poorly water-soluble drugs.

The aim of the present study was to develop and evaluate a novel drug solubilization platform (so-called solid nanodispersion) prepared by a simple co-grinding and solvent-free process. Using structurally diverse model compounds from the Pfizer drug library, including ingliforib, furosemide and celecoxib, we successfully prepared stable solid nanodispersions (SNDs) without the use of solvent or heat. Stable colloidal particles (<350 nm) containing drug, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) K12 and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in 1:2.75:0.25 ratio were produced after 2 h of co-grinding. The composition and particle size of SNDs were optimized by varying the grinding media size, powder-to-grinding media ratio, milling speed and milling time. The resulting formulations contained crystalline drug and were stable at room temperature for over one month. Greater than 80% of the drug was released from the SND in less than 30 min, with sustained supersaturation over 4 h. Using furosemide (BCS class IV compound) as a model compound, we conducted transport studies with Madin-Darby canine kidney cells transfected with human MDR1 gene (MDCK/MDR1), followed by pharmacokinetics studies in rats. Results showed that the SND formulation enhanced the absorptive flux of furosemide by more than 3-fold. In the pharmacokinetics studies, the SND formulation increased C(max) and AUC of furosemide by 36.6 and 43.2 fold respectively, relative to Methocel formulation. Interestingly, physical mixture containing furosemide, PVP K12 and SDS produced a similar level of oral exposure as the SNDs, albeit with a longer T(max) than the SND formulation. The results suggest that PVP K12 and SDS were able to increase the furosemide free fraction available for oral absorption. Low solubility, poor permeability, and high first-pass effect of furosemide may also have produced the effect that small improvements in solubilization resulted in significant potentiation of the oral exposure of the physical mixture. However the use of a physical mixture of drug, polymer and surfactant, to increase drug bioavailability cannot be generalized to all drugs. There are only a few reported cases of such phenomenon. While SNDs may not be the only option to solubilize compounds in every case, SNDs are expected to be applicable to a broader chemical space of pharmaceutical compounds compared to a physical mixture. Ultimately, the formulation scientist will have to exercise judgment in choosing the appropriate formulation strategy for the compound of interest. SNDs represent a significant improvement over current enabling technologies such as nanocrystal and spray-dried dispersion technologies, in that SNDs are simple, do not require solvent or heat, are applicable to a structurally diverse chemical space, and are readily amenable to the development of solid dosage forms.

A novel method for estimating solid fraction of roller-compacted ribbons.

A simple method has been developed to estimate solid fraction or relative density of compacts using the weight of ribbons produced during roller compaction. The method provides an alternative to the commonly used dimensional measurement, especially for formulations not amenable to forming quality ribbons. Surface texture of the compaction rolls has been taken into consideration in our mathematical treatment along with correction for ribbon relaxation. Ribbon relaxation occurring upon ribbon exiting the compaction zone is estimated using roll geometry, roll gap, and ribbon thickness. Detailed experimental runs have been carried out to confirm the validity of the proposed theory. The predicted solid fraction was found comparable to that from actual dimensional measurement by caliper. In the case of the microcrystalline cellulose/dicalcium phosphate one:one formulation, the predicted solid fraction had an error sum of squares (SSE) of 2.64E-03 when compared to the dimensional method. When relaxation was included, the SSE decreased by four folds. Similarly, for the microcrystalline cellulose/lactose monohydrate 2:1 formulation, the SSE decreased twelfth folds when relaxation was taken into consideration. These results further confirm the utility of the proposed throughput method for estimating the solid fraction of ribbons.

Effect of formulation composition on the properties of controlled release tablets prepared by roller compaction.

This study discusses the effect of formulation composition on the physical characteristics and drug release behavior of controlled-release formulations made by roller compaction. The authors used mixture experimental design to study the effect of formulation components using diclofenac sodium as the model drug substance and varying relative amounts of microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel), hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), and glyceryl behenate (Compritol). Dissolution studies revealed very little variability in drug release. The t70 values for the 13 formulations were found to vary between 260 and 550 min. A reduced cubic model was found to best fit the t70 data and gave an adjusted r-square of 0.9406. Each of the linear terms, the interaction terms between Compritol and Avicel and between all three of the tested factors were found to be significant. The longest release times were observed for formulations having higher concentrations of HPMC or Compritol. Tablets with higher concentrations of Avicel showed reduced ability to retard the release of the drug from the tablet matrix. Crushing strength showed systematic dependence on the formulation factors and could be modeled using a reduced quadratic model. The crushing strength values were highest at high concentrations of Avicel, while tablets with a high level of Compritol showed the lowest values. A predicted optimum formulation was derived by a numerical, multiresponse optimization technique. The validity of the model for predicting physical attributes of the product was also verified by experiment. The observed responses from the calculated optimum formulation were in very close agreement with values predicted by the model. The utility of a mixture experimental design for selecting formulation components of a roller compacted product was demonstrated. These simple statistical tools can allow a formulator to rationally select levels of various components in a formulation, improve the quality of products, and develop more robust processes.