Characterization of centchroman binding protein in plasma of rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta)

Clinical pharmacokinetics and interaction of centchroman--a mini review

This article provides a brief review of the information available regarding the published pharmacokinetics data for the nonsteroidal, once-a-week oral contraceptive, centchroman (INN: ormeloxifene). This agent is a unique need-oriented contraceptive agent which is included in the National Family Welfare Programme of India. Since 1991, centchroman has been used as a need-oriented contraceptive and is being given for treating dysfunctional bleeding of the uterus. Information regarding absorption, tissue distribution, elimination and kinetic interactions is discussed.

Centchroman, a selective estrogen receptor modulator, as a contraceptive and for the management of hormone-related clinical disorders

DL-Centchroman (67/20; INN: Ormeloxifene) synthesized at the Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, is a nonsteroidal once-a-week oral contraceptive. It was introduced in Delhi in July, 1991, marketed in India in 1992 as Saheli and Choice-7 (Hindustan Latex Ltd., Thiruvananthapuram) and Centron (Torrent Pharmaceuticals India Ltd., Ahmedabad), and included in the National Family Welfare Programme in 1995.5 According to post-marketing surveillance, approximately 100,000 women were using this pill and approximately 1100,000 menstrual cycles were covered until 1996. It is a unique need-oriented contraceptive being effective when taken immediately after coitus or routinely as a weekly pill and has the advantage of less frequent administration. Its contraceptive action is quickly reversible. It has long terminal serum halflife of 168 hr in women and exhibits duration of anti-implantation/estrogen antagonistic action of 120 hr, despite a short (24.1 hr) serum halflife, in the rat. In lactating women, it is excreted in milk in quantities considered unlikely to cause any deleterious effect on suckling babies. In phase II and III multicentric trials as a contraceptive, children born of method-and-user failure pregnancies showed normal milestones, without any congenital anomaly. Reports of its promising action in the management of certain hormone-related clinical disorders are available. It has an excellent therapeutic index and is considered safe for chronic administration.

Binding of centchroman with human serum as determined by charcoal adsorption method

Protein binding of drugs is an important factor influencing both pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters. Thus, knowing the extent of protein binding of drugs is crucial. Centchroman is a non-steroidal once a week oral contraceptive. It has been reported to be useful for the treatment of breast cancer and osteoporosis. Ample data has been generated on pharmacokinetics of centchroman in animals and humans. The extent of protein binding of centchroman has not been established so far. Non-specific adsorption of the drug limits the use of conventional methods like ultrafiltration and equilibrium dialysis. A method of charcoal adsorption as reported by Yuan et al. (method I) was used after modification (method II) to determine its binding to human serum. The extent of protein binding (%) is estimated from decline of percent drug remaining in the supernatant after adding the charcoal. Study was carried out at 1- and 10-microg/ml concentrations in drug free human serum samples and an HPLC assay was used to determine concentration-time data. The percentage of centchroman remaining in serum versus time data was analysed using non-linear fitting programs on WinNonlin software. Method II was found to give higher estimates of protein binding than the former method by preventing the dilution effect. Using this method, the extent of protein binding of centchroman was found to be 101.83+/-1.28 and 94.87+/-3.59% at 1 and 10 microg/ml, respectively. However, it was approximately 90% in the individual serum samples showing intersubject variability in protein binding of centchroman.