Observational techniques, drug

A word of caution should be noted here This methodology is simply a best guess which can be used to rank order different formulations. This methodology is in no way a complete simulation of the human digestive tract. One (of many) factor that is not considered in this experimentation is drug permeability. Ideally such a technique would observe both drug dissolution under biorelevant conditions, and observe the permeability of this dissolved drug in real time. Some attempts have been made to observe both critical factors simultaneously," " but to date no robust and routine techniques have been developed. 

The primary characteristic of a sequential blocker, as observed with the patch clamp technique, is that the reciprocal of the mean duration of the lifetime equals the normal channel closing rate plus the rate constant of channel blockade times the drug concentration. Therefore, increasing the drug concentration shortens the mean channel open time. 

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