The objective of study was to compare the pharmacokinetic and safety profiles of a fixed-dose combination (FDC) formulation of 5/160/20 mg amlodipine/valsartan/atorvastatin with those of separate formulations of a 5/160-mg amlodipine/valsartan tablet and a 20-mg atorvastatin tablet. This was a randomized, open-label, single-dose, 3-sequence, 3-period replicate crossover study with 42 subjects. Serial blood samples for pharmacokinetic assessment were collected up to 72 hours postdose. For establishing bioequivalence (BE) for amlodipine, valsartan, and atorvastatin, a reference-scaled average BE approach was used if applicable, as well as the conventional limit of 0.80-1.25. The 90% confidence intervals (CIs) for the geometric mean ratios (GMRs) for the maximum plasma concentration (Cmax ) and the area under the curve to the last measurable concentration (AUCt ) between the FDC and separate formulations were within the 0.80-1.25 limit for all analytes but atorvastatin. The estimated within-subject standard deviation of the log-transformed values of the separate formulations, the reference intervention, was 0.3804 for the Cmax of atorvastatin, being set at 0.7489-1.3352 for the BE acceptance limit. For both the Cmax and AUCt for atorvastatin, the GMRs lay within 0.80-1.25, and the 90%CIs for the GMRs were within the BE acceptance limit. This 3-period replicate crossover study demonstrated the BE of the FDC formulation of amlodipine, valsartan, and atorvastatin and the separate formulations of an amlodipine/valsartan tablet and an atorvastatin tablet. A similar incidence of treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) was observed in both interventions, and headache was the most common TEAE.
Keywords: atorvastatin; fixed-dose combination; highly variable drug; replicate crossover; within-subject variability.
© 2019 The Authors. Clinical Pharmacology in Drug Development published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American College of Clinical Pharmacology.