Assessment of bio(in)equivalence of deriphyllin-digoxin in human volunteers. II. Evaluation of rabbits as qualitative animal model.

In rabbits, a three way cross-over test was carried out to assess bioavailability of digoxin from commercially available 'Deriphyllin-Digoxin' tablets. The in vitro dissolution test showed that these tablets had low dissolution even at the end of 4 hr. The in vivo tests in rabbits compared bioavailability of digoxin from Deriphyllin-Digoxin tablets with that from Lanoxin tablets and intravenous digoxin injection. The treatments were given in randomized order with a minimum of 14 days wash-out period between the treatments. After the drug administrations, periodic blood samples were collected and plasma digoxin concentrations were analysed using radioimmunoassay. As indicated by the results of in vitro dissolution tests, Deriphyllin-Digoxin tablets showed poor and delayed absorption of digoxin in vivo. A parallel study on comparative bioavailability for the same batches of digoxin tablets was also carried out in human volunteers. The study in human volunteers involved 14 subjects and had a cross-over dosing. The bioavailability results in rabbits were qualitatively similar to human bioquivalence studies. This is the first report showing digoxin bioavailability in rabbits corresponding to that in humans. The importance of the rabbit as a secondary model for bioequivalence testing of digoxin formulations has been emphasized.