In vitro dissolution methodology, mini-Gastrointestinal Simulator (mGIS), predicts better in vivo dissolution of a weak base drug, dasatinib

USP apparatus I and II are gold standard methodologies for determining the in vitro dissolution profiles of test drugs. However, it is difficult to use in vitro dissolution results to predict in vivo dissolution, particularly the pH-dependent solubility of weak acid and base drugs, because the USP apparatus contains one vessel with a fixed pH for the test drug, limiting insight into in vivo drug dissolution of weak acid and weak base drugs. This discrepancy underscores the need to develop new in vitro dissolution methodology that better predicts in vivo response to assure the therapeutic efficacy and safety of oral drug products. Thus, the development of the in vivo predictive dissolution (IPD) methodology is necessitated. The major goals of in vitro dissolution are to ensure the performance of oral drug products and the support of drug formulation design, including bioequivalence (BE). Orally administered anticancer drugs, such as dasatinib and erlotinib (tyrosine kinase inhibitors), are used to treat various types of cancer. These drugs are weak bases that exhibit pH-dependent and high solubility in the acidic stomach and low solubility in the small intestine (>pH 6.0). Therefore, these drugs supersaturate and/or precipitate when they move from the stomach to the small intestine. Also of importance, gastric acidity for cancer patients may be altered with aging (reduction of gastric fluid secretion) and/or co-administration of acid-reducing agents. These may result in changes to the dissolution profiles of weak base and the reduction of drug absorption and efficacy. In vitro dissolution methodologies that assess the impact of these physiological changes in the GI condition are expected to better predict in vivo dissolution of oral medications for patients and, hence, better assess efficacy, toxicity and safety concerns. The objective of this present study is to determine the initial conditions for a mini-Gastrointestinal Simulator (mGIS) to assess in vivo dissolution of BCS class IIb drugs, dasatinib as a model drug, including the different gastric condition. The maximum dissolution of dasatinib with USP dissolution apparatus II was less than 1% in pH 6.5 SIF, while the one with mGIS (pH 1.2 SGF/pH 6.5 SIF) reached almost 100%. The supersaturation and precipitation of dasatinib were observed in the in vitro dissolution studies with mGIS but not with USP apparatus II. Additionally, dasatinib dissolution with mGIS was reduced to less than 10% when the gastric pH was elevated, suggesting the co-administration of acid reducing agents will decrease the oral bioavailability of dasatinib. Accurate prediction of in vivo drug dissolution would be beneficial for assuring product safety and efficacy for patients. To this end, we have created a new in vitro dissolution system, mGIS, to predict the in vivo dissolution phenomena of a weak base drug, dasatinib. The experimental results when combined with in silico simulation suggest that the mGIS predicted the in vivo dissolution well due to the elevation of gastric pH. Thus, mGIS might be suitable to predict in vivo dissolution of weak basic drugs. This mGIS methodology is expected to significantly advance the prediction of in vivo drug dissolution. It is also expected to assist in optimizing product development and drug formulation design in support of Quality by Design (QbD) initiatives.