Ethnicity evaluation of ferric pyrophosphate citrate among Asian and Non-Asian populations: a population pharmacokinetics analysis

PURPOSE: To evaluate the potential ethnic differences of ferric pyrophosphate citrate (FPC, Triferic) in healthy subjects and patients with hemodialysis-dependent stage 5 chronic kidney disease (CKD-5HD) and identify covariates that may influence pharmacokinetics (PK) of FPC. METHODS: Data were collected from 2 Asian and 4 non-Asian clinical studies involving healthy subjects and CKD-5HD patients. Three population PK models were developed: M1 for intravenous (IV) administration of FPC in healthy subjects; M2 for dialysate administration of FPC in CKD-5HD patients; M3 for pre-dialyzer administration of FPC in CKD-5HD patients. All the models were fitted to concentration versus time data of FPC using the nonlinear mixed effect approach with the NONMEM(®) program. All statistical analyses were performed using SAS version 9.4. RESULTS: In total, 26 Asians and 65 non-Asians were included in the final model analysis database. Forty healthy subjects were administered FPC via intravenous (IV) route and 51 patients with CKD-5HD via dialysate (N = 50) and pre-dialyzer blood circuit administration (N = 51). The PK parameters of FPC IV were similar. The population PK model showed good parameter precision and reliability as shown by model evaluation, and no relevant influence of ethnicity on PK parameters was observed. In healthy subjects, the maximum observed plasma concentration (C(max)) and area under the plasma concentration–time curve (AUC) decreased with increase in lean body mass (LBM) and the average serum total iron at 6 h before the baseline period (Fe(av)), whereas, in both patient populations, C(max) and AUC decreased with increase in LBM and decrease in Fe(baseline). Other factors such as gender, age, Fe(av), and ethnicity had no influence on PK exposures in patients. The influence of LBM on PK exposures in patients was smaller than that in healthy subjects (ratio of AUC(0-24) for the 5th [68 kg] and 95th [45 kg] patient’s LBM was almost 1). The influence of Fe(av) and LBM on PK exposures was < 50%. CONCLUSION: The population pharmacokinetics model successfully described the PK parameters of FPC in healthy subjects and CKD-5HD patients and were comparable between Asian and non-Asian populations. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00228-022-03328-9.