Effect of Rifampicin on the Pharmacokinetics of Evogliptin in Healthy Volunteers

PURPOSE: Evogliptin (DA-1229) is a novel, potent, and selective dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitor for treating type 2 diabetes mellitus. This study investigates the effect of rifampicin on evogliptin pharmacokinetics. PATIENTS AND METHODS: An open-label, crossover, one-sequence study was conducted on 12 healthy subjects. Reference baseline pharmacokinetic samples were collected on day 1 after the subjects were administered a single dose of 5 mg evogliptin. After a washout period, the subjects were administered 600 mg rifampicin once daily for 10 days, from days 8 to 17, for full induction of hepatic enzyme activity. On day 17, single doses of evogliptin (5 mg) were administered along with rifampicin (600 mg). The test pharmacokinetic samples were collected with a sampling schedule identical to that used for the reference. RESULTS: Maximum concentration (C(max)) and area under the plasma drug concentration-time curve (AUC(0-96h)) of evogliptin with and without co-administration of rifampicin were compared. Reference and test C(max) and AUC(0-96h) values of evogliptin were 4.70 ng/mL vs 4.86 ng/mL and 153.97 ng∙h/mL vs 58.83 ng∙h/mL, respectively. All adverse events were mild in intensity and considered unrelated to evogliptin administration. CONCLUSION: Rifampicin decreased the AUC(0-96h) of evogliptin by 61.8% without significantly affecting C(max). The mechanism underlying the decrease in AUC(0-96h) is thought to be the induction of cytochrome P450 (CYP), especially 3A, by rifampicin. The adverse events, none of which were serious, were not significantly altered by the concomitant administration of evogliptin and rifampicin. Nevertheless, it would be prudent that evogliptin dosing should be carefully considered when co-administered with CYP3A inducers.