Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the bioequivalence of two torasemide tablets, Torem tablet (Roche Korea Co., Ltd., Korea, reference drug) and Boryung Torsemide tablet (Boryung Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Korea, test drug), according to the guidelines of Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA). After adding an internal standard (furosemide) to human serum, serum samples were extracted using 5 mL of ethyl acetate. Compounds were analyzed by reverse-phase HPLC method with UV detection. This method showed linear response over the concentration range of 0.05 ug/mL with correlation coefficient of 0.999. The lower limit of quantitation using 0.5 mL of serum was 0.05 ug/mL which was sensitive enough for pharmacokinetic studies. Twenty-eight healthy male Korean volunteers received each medicine at the torasemide dose of 20 mg in a $2{\times}2$ crossover study. There was a one-week washout period between the doses. Serum concentrations of torasemide were monitored by an HPLC-UV for over a period of 12 hr after the administration. $AUC_{t}$(the area under the serum concentration-time curve from time zero to 12 hr) was calculated by the linear trapezoidal rule method. $C_{max}$ (maximum serum drug concentration) and $T_{max}$ (time to reach $C_{max}$) were compiled from the serum concentration-time data. Analysis of variance was carried out using logarithmically transformed $AUC_{t}$ and $C_{max}$. No significant sequence effect was found for all of the bioavailability parameters indicating that the crossover design was properly performed. The 90% confidence intervals of the $AUC_{t}$ ratio and the $C_{max}$ ratio for Boryung Torsemide/Torem were log 0.97-10g 1.03 and log 0.93log 1.12, respectively. These values were within the acceptable bioequivalence intervals of log 0.80-log 1.25. Thus, the criteria of the KFDA guidelines for the bioequivalence was satisfied, indicating Boryung Torsemide tablet and Torem tablet are bioequivalent.
