Prediction of oral absorption of griseofulvin, a BCS class II drug, based on GITA model: Utilization of a more suitable medium for in-vitro dissolution study

The in-vivo absorbability of drugs categorized into the biopharmaceutics classification system (BCS) class II is very difficult to be predicted because of the large variability in the absorption and/or dissolution kinetics and the lack of an adequate in-vitro system for evaluating the dissolution behavior. We tried to predict the in-vivo absorption kinetics of griseofulvin, categorized into BCS class II, orally administrated as powders into rats, based on Gastrointestinal-Transit-Absorption model (GITA model), consisting of the absorption, dissolution and GI-transit processes. Using the dissolution rate constants (k_dis) of griseofulvin obtained with JP 1st solution, JP 2nd solution, FaSSIF, FeSSIF and modified SIBLM as a medium, simulation lines were not able to describe the observed mean plasma profile at all. On the other hand, a calculated line provided by employing k_dis obtained with MREVID 2 (medium reflecting in-vivo dissolution 2), a new medium, was in better agreement with the observed mean plasma profile than existing media, indicating that the utilization of adequate k_dis value made it possible to predict the in-vivo absorption kinetics of drugs classified into BCS class II based on GITA model and that MREVID 2 could be a useful medium for describing the in-vivo dissolution kinetics.