Viscosity-mediated negative food effect on oral absorption of poorly-permeable drugs with an absorption window in the proximal intestine: In vitro experimental simulation and computational verification.

Concomitant food intake can diminish oral absorption of drugs with limited permeability and an absorption window in the proximal intestine, due to viscosity-mediated decrease in dosage form disintegration time and drug dissolution rate. Three poorly-permeable drugs (atenolol, metformin hydrochloride, and furosemide) exhibiting negative food effect, and one highly-soluble and highly-permeable (metoprolol tartrate), serving as a negative control, were selected for the study. In vitro and in silico tools were used to evaluate the influence of media viscosity on drug bioperformance under fasted and fed conditions. The obtained results demonstrated that increased medium viscosity in the presence…