Importance of Bioavailability in the Medical World
Bioavailability (BA) is defined as the rate and extent to which the active ingredient or active moiety is absorbed from a drug product and becomes available at the site of action. For drug products that are not intended to be absorbed into the bloodstream, bioavailability may be assessed by measurements intended to reflect the rate and extent to which the active ingredient or active moiety becomes available at the site of action.Analyzing from the point of view of nutrition, bioavailability suggests that our digestive system is capable of extracting nutrients from the product in a form that can be absorbed into the bloodstream.
Why this is so important? This is essential from a nutrition point of view as our body gets more of the available nutrients when the supplements are in liquid form. Most nutrients today are in pill form. As per thePhysicians’ Desk Reference 85 to 90 percent of the nutrients in the liquid supplements are absorbed within a time span of 22 to 30 seconds. In case of the pill form, it takes hours and only a minimum amount of 10 to 20 percent of nutrients is absorbed in the body.
Reasons for studying Bioavailability
There are various reasons for studying bioavailability as the data can help to:-
- Offer practical information on the potential health effects of contamination
- Helps to modify defaults by using site specific data
- Helps to change proposed cleanup levels and saves time and money to reach the accepted levels
- Helps to prioritize sites for subsequent evaluation
Ways to measure bioavailability
There are numerous ways that are followed to estimate bioavailability. Site specific analysis can offer essential information that can influence a risk assessment. In soil, a contaminant bioavailability can be measuredin numerous ways such as:-
- Extraction using acids and bases
- Extraction using biological fluids
- In vitro assays using bacterial systems
- In vivo assays using aquatic mammals and organisms
- Statistical estimation procedures
Measuring the bioavailability has become an integral tool to estimate the new formulation developed by a pharmaceutical company. Eminent clinical research organizations today conduct bioavailability studies to offer various useful pharmacokinetic information associated with elimination, distribution, the effects of nutrients on absorption of the drug, linearity in the pharmacokinetics of the active moieties and inactive moieties, dose proportionality and many more. Bioavailability information can also offer data directly about the drug substance properties prior to its entry into the systemic circulation, foe instance permeability and the impact of pre-systemic enzymes and transporters. Once a product is approved of having an adequate bioavailability then the same product can be selected for bioequivalence for it to be compared with the innovator drug from a certain regulatory.
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