Ivacaftor hydrate is an orally bioavailable CFTR potentiator. It also is used for cystic fibrosis treatment.

Ivacaftor displays no significant activity against 160 targets tested including the GABAA benzodiazepine receptor. Ivacaftor enhances the chloride secretion (EC50 of 0.236 ± 0.200 μM). Compared to the F508del HBEs, it has a 10-fold shift in potency [3]. Ivacaftor (10?μM) enhances the PC secretion activity by 3-fold for ABCB4-G535D, 13.7-fold for ABCB4-G536R, 6.7-fold for ABCB4-S1076C, 9.4-fold for ABCB4-S1176L, and 5.7-fold for ABCB4-G1178S. Ivacaftor corrects the functional defect of ABCB4 mutants[1]. Ivacaftor (10 μM) obviously increases CFTR activity in W1282X-expressing cells compared to R1162X CFTR cells[2]. VX-770 increases CFTR channel open probability (Po) in both the F508del processing mutation and the G551D gating mutation, in recombinant cells. VX-770 increases forskolin-stimulated IT in temperature-corrected F508del-FRT cells by appr 6-fold with an EC50 of 25 nM[4].

In rat, Ivacaftor (1-200 mg/kg, p.o.) shows good oral bioavailability[3].