Provisional BCS Classification of the Leading Oral Drugs on the Global Market

Abstract

In the early 1990s, a collaborative research effort between academia and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was initiated to establish a database of human jejunal permeabilities based on a Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS). The BCS broadly allowed the prediction of human absorption, Fraction absorbed ( F abs ) and the rate‐limiting step in the intestinal absorption process of drugs following oral administration. The BCS classified compounds into one of four biopharmaceutical classes according to water solubility and membrane permeability characteristics. Today, the BCS has generated remarkable impact on the global pharmaceutical sciences arena, in drug discovery, development and regulation, and an extensive validation/discussion of the BCS is continuously published in the literature. BCS has been effectively implanted by drug regulatory agencies around the world, and widely practiced by the pharmaceutical industry. The aim of this article is to present the BCS and its scientific basis, to describe its impact on regulatory practice of oral drug products, and to access the BCS classification of the top drugs on the global market. Finally, current and future directions in BCS related extensions, and their impact on the pharmaceutical industry, will be discussed.