Bioavailability and bioequivalence studies in Turkey: A status report from the national registry of studies between 2008-2014

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate bioavailability (BA) and bioequivalence (BE) studies conducted in Turkey between January 2008 and the end of June 2014.Materials and Methods: Data on BA/BE studies collected from databases for 2008-2014 studies of Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency were evaluated in terms of endpoint classification (BA/BE), allocation status (randomized/nonrandomized), blinding (open/single blind/double blind), dose (single/multiple dose), and interventional group (single group/ parallel/cross-over/factorial). Results:All studies were open, randomized with healthy male volunteers, and the majority had a crossover design and a single dose. Overall, 670 studies were conducted in Turkey between January 2008 and June 2014, while BE (n=631, 94.2%) studies formed the major part. All studies conducted between 2008 and 2010 (n=274) were BE studies. Thirty-nine (5.8% of overall studies) BA studies were conducted from 2011 to 2014, including 13 studies in 2011 (33.3% of overall BA studies), 15 in 2012 (38.4% of overall BA studies), 6 in 2013 (15.4% of overall BA studies) and 5 in 2014 (12.8% of overall BA studies). Conclusions:Our findings showed that 670 BA/BE studies were conducted in Turkey between 2008 and 2014, including 631 BE and 39 BA studies with gradual increase in the number of both types of studies throughout the years.