No abstract

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether the population balance model (PBM) could be a suitable model for the precipitation of weak base and zwitterionic drugs in the gastrointestinal pH environment. Five poorly soluble drugs were used as model drugs (dipyridamole, haloperidol, papaverine, phenazopyridine, and tosufloxacin). PBM consists of the equations for primary nucleation, secondary nucleation, and particle growth. Each equation has two empirical parameters. The pH shift (pH-dumping) precipitation test (pH 3.0 to 6.5) was used to determine the model parameters for each drug. It was difficult to determine all six parameters by simultaneously fitting them to the precipitation profiles. Therefore, the number of model parameters was reduced from six to three by neglecting the secondary nucleation process and applying a common exponent number for the particle growth equation. Despite reducing the parameter number, PBM appropriately described the precipitation profiles in the pH shift tests. The constructed PBM model was then used to predict the precipitation profiles in an artificial stomach–intestine transfer (ASIT) test. PBM appropriately predicted the precipitation profiles in the ASIT test. These results suggested that PBM can be a suitable model to represent the precipitation of weak base and zwitterionic drugs in the gastrointestinal pH environment for biopharmaceutics modeling and simulation.