The importance of bioavailability to the pharmacist

In many places in North America both by law and by delegation by physicians, pharmacists are responsible for choosing a specific brand or supplier of a drug. Only in the past few years, the importance of this selection has become recognized. Although the clinical importance of variations in biovailability is limited to only a few classes of drugs, adequate bioavailability information on which to base such a choice is imperative. Government and non-government groups now seem to be moving rapidly in the direction of providing guidance to pharmacists in drug selection. The lack of in-vivo data, particularly in patients with the disease in which the drug is used, is badly needed by such groups and individual practitioners in order that any decision on product selection be an informed one.