Pharmacokinetics of febuxostat in healthy Chinese volunteers.

BACKGROUND

Febuxostat is a novel non-purine selective inhibitor of xanthine oxidase developed for the management of hyperuricemia in patients with gout.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the pharmacokinetics and also evaluate the effects of gender and food on the pharmacokinetics of febuxostat in healthy Chinese volunteers.

METHODS

A phase I, 3-period study was performed in healthy Chinese male and female subjects. Subjects either received single 40 mg, multiple 40 mg and single 80 mg doses of febuxostat under fasted conditions, or received single 80 mg doses under fed condition. Plasma concentrations of febuxostat were collected and determined at 14 time points over 48 h.

RESULTS

After 40 mg and 80 mg single dose administration of febuxostat, the C max were 2.308±0.812 and 4.559±1.246 μg/mL, the T max were 1.6±0.6 and 2.1±1.0 h, the t 1/2 were 6.8±1.7 and 6.7±1.9 h, and the AUC0-∞ were 7.704±1.723 and 16.34±3.87 μg∙h/mL, respectively. In the multiple-dose study at 40 mg dose for 6 consecutive days, the mean (SD) steady-state pharmacokinetic parameters on day 8 were similar to those following a single dose of febuxostat on day 1. In addition, food caused a decrease of 33% for C max and a delay of 0.3 h for T max. Gender had no significant effect on the pharmacokinetics of febuxostat. Febuxostat was well tolerated over the investigated dose range.

CONCLUSION

Compared with the previous study, the pharmacokinetics of febuxostat appeared to be different between Chinese and other races.