Comparison of Pharmacokinetics of Dapsone in Male Sprague Dawley Rats Following Retro Orbital, Jugular Vein and Saphenous Vein Blood Sampling

Pharmacokinetic (PK) studies play a vital role in selecting a lead compound for further development. Rats are the preferred rodent species for assessing PK behavior of new chemical entities (NCEs).Typically during drug discovery phase limited compound availability can be a hurdle to conduct detailed and robust pharmacokinetic studies with large number of animals. In addition, using large number of animals is of ethical concern and therefore complying with 3Rs (reduce, refine and replace) is of major challenge. The recent advances in micro sampling techniques, highly sensitive LC-MS methods made it possible to conduct robust and detailed PK studies during drug discovery, with limited number of animals.