New model for intravenous drug administration and blood sampling in the awake rat, designed to increase quality and throughput for in vivo pharmacokinetic analysis.

Introduction: There is a continuing need for increased throughput in the examination of new chemical entities (NCEs) in terms of the pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters. The aim was to validate a new study method designed to improve throughput and reduce inter-animal variability and animal number requirement in routine bioavailability and plasma PK studies of NCEs in awake rats.

Methods: The design uses a new method for intravenous (iv) administration via the saphenous vein in combination with serial blood sampling via the tail vein.