The Pharmacist's Dilemma—Drug Product Selection Using Bioavailability Data

Abstract

One hundred fifty-six U.S. drug companies were surveyed to determine whether or not they would supply bioavailability data on 147 drugs marketed as 1894 drug products. The submitted data were analyzed for completeness, validity and potential usefulness to the pharmacist in making drug product selection decisions. Ninety (57.7 percent) companies responded to the survey. Thirty-eight (24.4 percent) sent data of which that from 29 (18.6 percent) was judged acceptable for use in drug product selection.

Acceptable data were submitted on 59 drugs. Data on 46 drugs were considered blood-level bioavailability data while the data on 13 drugs were considered clinical bioavailability data. The results, though relatively limited in number of drugs, represented drugs in a number of different pharmacologic classes, so were judged to be of relatively wide applicability.