Bioequivalence of Inhaled Medication

Wong and Hargreave (245) have written an excellent review about the bioequivalence of metered-dose inhaled medications. The article is written for comparisons of generic drugs with the original. It is, however, also relevant for comparison between different administration systems. The authors discuss the criteria for equivalence of medications in in vitro studies it should be close to 15% of the innovator. They also discuss the different main types of inhalation drugs (e.g., bronchodilators, steroids, and antiallergic aerosols). 

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For antiallergic aerosols, it is unclear which stimulus will be the most appropriate. One proposal was the shift in the dose response curve for AMP (251). 

Jenne JW, Ahrens RC. Pharmacokinetics of heta-adrenergic compounds. In Jenne JW, Murphy S, eds. Drag Therapy for Asthma. New York Marcel Dekker, 1987 213. 

Wolff RK, Dorato MA. Toxicological testing of inhaled pharmaceutical aerosols. Crit Rev Toxicol 1993 23 343 369. 

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