Route of Administration
Intravenous
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Injected or infused directly into a vein. By definition the whole dose reaches the circulation, which makes this route the reference point other routes are compared against when bioavailability is expressed as a percentage. Onset is immediate and there is no absorption phase to slow anything down.
Why it matters here
A large share of the pharmacokinetic numbers attached to peptide records, half-life in particular, come from intravenous studies and often from animals. Those numbers describe an intravenous curve and do not transfer unchanged to a depot under the skin.
What it is not
A vehicle that suits one route does not automatically suit a vein. Bacteriostatic water contains benzyl alcohol, and preservative content is one of the things that separates a preparation intended for intravenous use from a multi-dose one.
Also called
- intravenous
- iv
- iv infusion
IV is the standard abbreviation.