Population pharmacokinetic analysis of meloxicam in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Aim  To perform a nonlinear mixed effect modelling (NONMEM) population pharmacokinetic analysis of meloxicam plasma concentrations in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients participating in three clinical trials, and to evaluate the effects of age, weight, gender and concomitant medications on meloxicam pharmacokinetics. Methods  Meloxicam was administered to RA patients once daily for 3 weeks or 6 months at doses between 7.5 and 60 mg. Plasma samples were obtained at least 7 days after the first dose and meloxicam plasma concentrations were quantified by h.p.l.c.. Results  NONMEM analysis was conducted on plasma samples derived from 586 patients. A one-compartmental model was found to describe the data adequately. For a typical subject in the population, a clearance of 0.377 l h−1 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.0304–0.449) in males and 0.347 l h−1 (95% CI 0.274-0.419) in females was obtained. The volume of distribution was estimated to be 14.9 l. The findings were corroborated by subsequent analysis using WinBUGS. Analysis of covariates showed that age and gender both significantly (P < 0.005) affected clearance. The effect of age was relatively small and a dose adjustment of <10% was deemed unnecessary. Differences between males and females were attributed to differences in weight. No clinically relevant drug-drug interactions were found, although sulphasalazine and glucocorticoids both significantly (P < 0.005) affected meloxicam clearance (+19% and − 12%, respectively). The mechanisms by which these agents affect meloxicam clearance remain to be elucidated. Conclusions  The population pharmacokinetic meloxicam data from patients with RA gave similar results to those obtained from phase I trials. However, uncommon drug interactions may not be detected in phase I trials because of the small number of observations made.