• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.50-55
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• 2010

Cefetamet pivoxil is a prodrug of cefetamet possessing a broad spectrum of activity against many aerobic gram-positive and -negative organisms. Although many literatures in abroad had introduced its pharmacokinetics about two decays ago, no data have been revealed in Korean subjects. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the pharmacokinetics of cefetamet following a single oral administration of cefetamet pivoxil in Korean healthy volunteers. After an overnight fast, a tablet of cefetamet pivoxil (500 mg) was given to eight volunteers, and blood samples were serially taken up to 12 h. Plasma concentrations of cefetamet were determined by HPLC with UV detection. Cefetamet reached the peak concentration ($2.0{\pm}1.3\;{\mu}g/ml$) at $3.0{\pm}0.8$ h, and mono-exponentially decayed at a half-life of $2.6{\pm}0.9$ h. Three volunteers represented very low systemic exposure compared to the others, which provided very large inter-individual variation in Cmax, and AUC. The present results were discussed and reviewed with the previously published data, and a couple of points are suggested for clinical trials of this drug in Korean subject including bioequivalence study.