A level A in vitro/in vivo correlation in fasted and fed states using different methods: Applied to solid immediate release oral dosage form

The first purpose of this study was to simulate the impact of food intake on drug release and absorption in vivo using a novel in vitro system which mimics the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract in man. The drug studied was acetaminophen in the form of immediate release (IR) tablets. The second purpose was to establish a level A in vitro/in vivo correlation that could predict the bioavailability of a drug instead of using difficult, time-consuming and expensive in vivo bioequivalence studies. The artificial digestive system was used to estimate the availability of acetaminophen IR tablets for absorption in fasted and fed states. The same study was performed in vivo under similar conditions. A comparison study was carried out between the classical and the novel methods to estimate the efficacy of the new in vitro system to simulate the influence of food on drug release and absorption in vivo. A level A in vitro/in vivo correlation was established with a correlation coefficient of 0.9128 and 0.9984 in the fasted and fed states, respectively. Compared to USP II method, the novel in vitro model demonstrated a high level of efficacy in mimicking the behaviour of acetaminophen IR tablets in vivo in fasted and fed states.