IMI - oral biopharmaceutics tools project - evaluation of bottom-up PBPK prediction success part 1: Characterisation of the OrBiTo database of compounds.

Predicting oral bioavailability (Foral) is of importance for estimating systemic exposure of orally administered drugs. Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling and simulation have been applied extensively in biopharmaceutics recently. The Oral Biopharmaceutical Tools (OrBiTo) project (Innovative Medicines Initiative) aims to develop and improve upon biopharmaceutical tools, including PBPK absorption models. A large-scale evaluation of PBPK models may be considered the first step. Here we characterise the OrBiTo active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) database for use in a large-scale simulation study. The OrBiTo database comprised 83 APIs and 1475 study arms. The database displayed a median logP of 3.60 (2.40-4.58), human blood-to-plasma ratio of 0.62 (0.57-0.71), and fraction unbound in plasma of 0.05 (0.01-0.17). The database mainly consisted of basic compounds (48.19%) and Biopharmaceutics Classification System class II compounds (55.81%). Median human intravenous clearance was 16.9L/h (interquartile range: 11.6-43.6L/h; n=23), volume of distribution was 80.8L (54.5-239L; n=23). The majority of oral formulations were immediate release (IR: 87.6%). Human Foral displayed a median of 0.415 (0.203-0.724; n=22) for IR formulations. The OrBiTo database was found to be largely representative of previously published datasets. 43 of the APIs were found to satisfy the minimum inclusion criteria for the simulation exercise, and many of these have significant gaps of other key parameters, which could potentially impact the interpretability of the simulation outcome. However, the OrBiTo simulation exercise represents a unique opportunity to perform a large-scale evaluation of the PBPK approach to predicting oral biopharmaceutics.

Predicting biopharmaceutical performance of oral drug candidates - Extending the volume to dissolve applied dose concept.

The purpose of the study was to experimentally deduce pH-dependent critical volumes to dissolve applied dose (VDAD) that determine whether a drug candidate can be developed as immediate release (IR) tablet containing crystalline API, or if solubilization technology is needed to allow for sufficient oral bioavailability. pH-dependent VDADs of 22 and 83 compounds were plotted vs. the relative oral bioavailability (AUC solid vs. AUC solution formulation, Frel) in humans and rats, respectively. Furthermore, in order to investigate to what extent Frel rat may predict issues with solubility limited absorption in human, Frel rat was plotted vs. Frel human. Additionally, the impact of bile salts and lecithin on in vitro dissolution of poorly soluble compounds was tested and data compared to Frel rat and human. Respective in vitro - in vivo and in vivo - in vivo correlations were generated and used to build developability criteria. As a result, based on pH-dependent VDAD, Frel rat and in vitro dissolution in simulated intestinal fluid the IR formulation strategy within Pharmaceutical Research and Development organizations can be already set at late stage of drug discovery.

Inhibition of hypoxia-induced gene transcription by substituted pyrazolyl oxadiazoles: initial lead generation and structure-activity relationships.

The transcription factors hypoxia-inducible factor-1 and -2 (HIF-1 and HIF-2) orchestrate a multitude of processes that allow tumor cells to survive under conditions of low oxygen and nutrients, and that lead to resistance to some apoptotic pathways and facilitate invasion and metastasis. Therefore, inhibition of transactivation by HIF has become an attractive target in cancer research. Herein we present the results of a cell-based screening approach that led to the discovery of substituted 1H-pyrazole-3-carboxamides. Chemical optimization of the hit class with respect to potency and metabolic stability is described; it resulted in novel 5-(1H-pyrazol-3-yl)-1,2,4-oxadiazoles that inhibit the hypoxia-induced accumulation of HIF-1α and HIF-2α. The HIF inhibitory potency in the screening cell system was improved from IC50 190 to 0.7 nM, and significant parts of the SAR are disclosed. For a key compound, the ability to suppress the hypoxia-induced expression of HIF target genes was studied in A549 human lung adenocarcinoma cells. The same compound shows a favorable pharmacokinetic profile in rats after i.v. and p.o. administration.