Assessing solubility of meloxicam in age-specific gastric and intestinal media relevant to adults and pediatric populations: implications for optimizing dosing in patients for postoperative pain.

Background: Oral dose formulations must be soluble in gastrointestinal fluids for systemic absorption. The solubility of meloxicam was determined in 16 different age-specific simulated gastric and intestinal media that mirrored the microenvironments in pediatrics and adults.

Methods: The solubility of meloxicam in the 16 different age-specific simulated gastric and intestinal biorelevant media was assessed using the standard US pharmacopeial method. The molecular descriptors of meloxicam were used to assess its intestinal permeability.

Results: Meloxicam exhibited low solubility in the age-specific simulated gastric media for fasted and fed states and in pediatrics and adults. Similarly, meloxicam exhibited low solubility in the age-specific simulated media that mirrored neonates fed cow milk-based formula. On the other hand, meloxicam exhibited high solubility in the rest of the age-specific pediatric and adult intestinal media that simulated the fasted and fed states. The pediatric-to-adult solubility ratios were outside the 80-125% range in 7 (58.3%) and was borderline in 1 (8.3%) out of the 12 calculated ratios. These findings indicated that the solubility of meloxicam showed clinically significant differences in 8 (66.7%) of the compared media.

Conclusion: Meloxicam exhibited low solubility in the age-specific simulated gastric media and high solubility in the simulated intestinal media for adults and pediatrics. Moreover, the pediatric-to-adult solubility ratios may have clinically significant implications. These differences can be translated into a higher likelihood of failing to demonstrate bioequivalence of different formulations containing meloxicam and variabilities in the performance of these formulations.