Considerations for a Pediatric Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS): Application to Five Drugs

It has been advocated that biopharmaceutic risk assessment should be conducted early in pediatric product development and synchronized with the adult product development program. However, we are unaware of efforts to classify drugs into a Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) framework for pediatric patients. The objective was to classify five drugs into a potential BCS. These five drugs were selected since both oral and intravenous pharmacokinetic data were available for each drug, and covered the four BCS classes in adults. Literature searches for each drug were conducted using Medline and applied to classify drugs with respect to solubility and permeability in pediatric subpopulations. Four pediatric subpopulations were considered: neonates, infants, children, and adolescents. Regarding solubility, dose numbers were calculated using a volume for each subpopulation based on body surface area (BSA) relative to 250 ml for a 1.73 m² adult. Dose numbers spanned a range of values, depending upon the pediatric dose formula and subpopulation. Regarding permeability, pharmacokinetic literature data required assumptions and decisions about data collection. Using a devised pediatric BCS framework, there was agreement in adult and pediatric BCS class for two drugs, azithromycin (class 3) and ciprofloxacin (class 4). There was discordance for the three drugs that have high adult permeability since all pediatric permeabilities were low: dolasetron (class 3 in pediatric), ketoprofen (class 4 in pediatric), and voriconazole (class 4 in pediatric). A main contribution of this work is the identification of critical factors required for a pediatric BCS.