Population pharmacokinetics of gliclazide in normal and diabetic rabbits

Gliclazide is a second‐generation sulphonylurea drug widely used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. However, there is no single report to describe the population pharmacokinetics of gliclazide in animal models. This study was aimed to evaluate the population pharmacokinetics (PK) of gliclazide in normal and alloxan‐induced diabetic rabbits using nonlinear mixed effects modeling. A total of 90 New Zealand white rabbits were administered with three doses (4.13, 8.27 and 16.53 mg/kg b.wt) of gliclazide by an oral route. Blood samples were collected up to 24 hr and the gliclazide concentrations in rabbit were determined using the HPLC method. The non‐compartmental and classical compartmental PK analyses were performed using Phoenix WinNonlin. Population PK analysis of gliclazide was performed using nonlinear mixed‐effects model software NONMEM and Phoenix NLME considering the weight, age, sex, health and dose as covariates. The final population values for clearance (CL), volume of distribution (V) and the absorption rate constant (k_a) were 5270 ml/hr, 55700 ml and 0.708 hr^?1, respectively. The inter‐individual variability in gliclazide CL, V and k_a was 16.3%, 14.9% and 26.5%, respectively. There was no significant difference between NONMEM and Phoenix NLME pharmacokinetic results. The visual predictive check and bootstrap analysis confirmed the predictive ability, model stability and precision of the parameter estimates from this model. This population PK model demonstrated that gliclazide pharmacokinetics is best described by one‐compartment model with first‐order absorption in rabbits. Body weight is a covariate that significantly influences gliclazide kinetic disposition in rabbits.