Applications of In Vitro–In Vivo Correlations in Generic Drug Development: Case Studies

In vitro–in vivo correlation (IVIVC) is a predictive mathematical model describing the relationship between an in vitro property and a relevant in vivo response. The main objective of an IVIVC is to serve as a surrogate for human bioequivalence (BE) studies, which may reduce the number of BE studies performed during the initial approval process as well as with certain scale-up and postapproval changes. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a regulatory guidance related to development, evaluation, and applications of IVIVC for extended-release (ER) oral dosage forms in September 1997. Despite the publication of this guidance, the deficiencies related to IVIVC are still identified by the Division of Bioequivalence in the process of Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) review. Thus, the main objective of this article is to present the most commonly occurring deficiencies associated with IVIVCs via selected case studies from the ANDAs for oral ER drug products only. We searched internal FDA databases from January 1996 to December 2014 to identify the ANDAs for proposed generic oral ER drug products containing IVIVC. Only 14 ANDA submissions had IVIVC data, and most were not acceptable. Only one ANDA submission included adequate information related to IVIVC data enabling the completion of BE review within first review cycle. It is hoped that awareness of the deficiencies presented in our article would help the generic drug applicants to submit complete and appropriate information related to IVIVC data, ultimately, resulting in a more timely approval of ANDAs.