The apparent biologic half-lives of tetracycline, demethylchlortetracycline, methacycline, and doxycycline were found to increase from 6.3, 11, 7, and 8.3 hours to 10, 14.7, 11, and 14.5 hours, respectively, during Drug concentrations in serum are useful in evaluating the relative availability of a drug following administration of drug products.'"' If urine excretion data is also Received for publication May, 16, 1969. Accepted for publication June 25, 1969. 0 1t is important to recognize the difference between the terms "drug'' and "drug product" as they are used in this report. A "drug" is the chemical substance responsible for antibiotic activity, whereas a "drug product" is a specific chemical and physical form of the active substance. The blood levels of drug produced by drug products are directly influenced by the chemical form of the drug (i.e., the phosphate complex) and the characteristics of the dosage form (i.e., fillers, binders, particle size of the active ingredient, etc.) as well as the pharmacodynamic properties of the drug itself (i.e., serum binding, metabolism, excretion, etc.). Thus, in this report the specific trade name (and lot number) of the drug product is used in the discussion when formulation factors are important and the chemical name of the drug is used when formulation factors are expected to have little influence. 690 available, mathematical treatment of the data enables one to calculate individual rate constants for the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion processes.
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