Ketoprofen pharmacokinetics and bioavailability based on an improved sensitive and specific assay.

A commercial capsule containing 50 mg of ketoprofen (Orudis), a simple capsule containing 50 mg of ketoprofen alone and 50 mg of ketoprofen in an aqueous solution were given as separate doses in a randomized sequence to 12 normal adult males. The areas under the resulting plasma concentration-time curves (AUC) were remarkably consistent for each volunteer. The bioavailability from the commercial capsule relative to that from the solution was 99.7% +/- 10.5% and that from the simple capsule was 102% +/- 10%. After 6 of the volunteers had taken the commercial capsule 6 hourly for thirteen doses, their AUC extrapolated to infinity was significantly higher (by 22%) than that after the single dose indicating, contrary to previous reports, accumulation upon multiple dosing. The interdose AUC after the thirteenth dose was, however, statistically indistinguishable from the AUC-to-infinity after the single dose as might be expected from linear kinetics. The ketoprofen solution generated peak plasma concentrations in only one-third the time (21 +/- 7 min) required for the capsules (commercial, 72 +/- 45; simple, 61 +/- 39 min). Despite plasma concentrations being tracked over a 200-fold range, log linearity was not established within 12 h in any of the 42 profiles obtained. A two-compartment open model was fitted to the solution data giving excellent prediction of the time-to-peak and clearance (Cl/F = 5.2 +/- 1.1l/h) as determined by eye and by log-trapezoidal rule, respectively.