Diabetes: pharmaceutics

IAN LARSON: In this recording, you’re going to learn about the pharmacokinetics of Gliclazide and how its elimination half-life influences how often Shirley needs to take her tablets. And you’ll also learn about a newer type of tablet designed to be taken less frequently, making medicine taking easier. Yes, you have seen this graph before. You will remember, from my recording in week one, that a drug’s elimination half-life is the time it takes for the drug concentration in the elimination phase to drop to half its concentration. And you’ll also remember that this influences when you need to take your next dose of medicine.

The elimination half-life of Gliclazide is such that the Gliclazide concentration only drops below its minimum effective concentration at 12 hours. This means that you need to take Gliclazide tablets twice a day, usually once in the morning and once in the evening, generally with or around meals. If Shirley had difficulty swallowing tablets, taking one tablet per day would be easier for her than taking two. Some people also find it easier to remember to take one tablet per day than two. For these and other reasons, Gliclazide is available as a once-per-day tablet. This newer type of tablet, sometimes referred to a slow or modified released tablet, doesn’t disintegrate and releases its drug over much longer time frames than conventional tablets.

As shown on the graph, the Gliclazide concentration only falls below the minimum effective concentration after 24 hours, meaning that you only need to take one tablet per day.