Pharmacokinetic scale-up: accurate prediction of human pharmacokinetic profiles from animal data.

Ceftizoxime pharmacokinetic parameters from mice, rats, monkeys, and dogs were scaled allometrically and used to predict the value of each parameter in a 70-kg human. Three methods of interspecies pharmacokinetic scale-up provided accurate simulations of the human biexponential serum concentration-time profiles for a 1-g iv bolus and a 4-g, 30-min intravenous infusion. Successful scale-up of animal pharmacokinetic data can have tremendous impact during the preclinical assessment of new pharmaceutical compounds by providing reasonable estimates of pharmacokinetic parameters in humans.