Modified release (MR) oral drug products are considered to have a high risk for alcohol dose dumping (ADD) because they contain large quantities of drug(s), designed to release over a prolonged period of time. Accidental exposure of these products to alcohol can result in the relatively rapid release of large quantities of drug with severe side effects, including death. To mitigate this risk, the FDA recommends conducting an in vitro alcohol dose dumping assessment in 0%, 5%, 20%, and 40% alcoholic dissolution media for all prospective generic versions of MR oral drug products. To date, ADD assessments have not been harmonized globally. For instance, the U.S. FDA recommends testing up to 40% alcoholic media while the European Medicines Agency recommends testing up to 20% alcoholic media. This type of difference can present a challenge for formulators designing products for multiple markets, as historical data has shown release from MR oral products do not always follow a linear response (either increasing or decreasing) to increasing alcohol concentrations. In addition, interpretation of an ADD assessment may be limited by the inability of the test to predict in vivo behavior. The purpose of this research is to develop tools that 1) facilitate the development of MR generic drug products that have a low potential for ADD, 2) support regulatory decision making during the assessment of such products, and 3) provide evidence that enables FDA to develop more specific recommendations for efficiently demonstrating a low or comparative potential of alcohol dose dumping for MR oral drug products containing high risk drugs.
