A bioequivalence study is conducted in humans to establish that two or more products are capable of providing same/similar blood/plasma drug levels. Underlying assumption is that if the products provide same plasma drug levels then their therapeutic effects would be the same as well, thus would allow interchangeability of the products such as the generics.
Therefore, for all practical purposes the bioequivalence assessment may be considered as a typical analytical chemistry test where the assessment is based on determining plasma levels. For conducting an appropriate and accurate analytical test, the test must follow some fundamental principles of analytical tests such as specificity and its validation (accuracy, precision and reproducibility). A test cannot be validated if it is not specific.
In this regard, a bioequivalence test is a non-specific test as plasma drug levels include (confounded) variabilities from stomach emptying/motility and liver metabolism of the drug – independent of the product characteristics. Therefore, caution is warranted in establishing quality of the test products based on the bio-equivalence test.
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