Identification, isolation and characterization of potential process-related impurity and its degradation product in vildagliptin

Simultaneous determination of enantiomeric and organic impurities of vildagliptin on a cellulose tris(3-chloro-4-methylphenylcarbamate) column under revered-phase conditions

A new, reversed-phase HPLC (RP-HPLC) method was developed for the simultaneous determination of the dipeptidyl-peptidase-IV-inhibitor antidiabetic drug vildagliptin (VIL) enantiomeric impurity and four other achiral related impurities. An initial screening was performed on five polysaccharide-type chiral stationary phases (Lux Amylose-1, Lux Amylose-2, Lux-Cellulose-1, Lux-Cellulose-2, Lux-Cellulose-3) in polar organic mode with methanol, ethanol, 2-propanol, or acetonitrile containing 0,1% diethylamine as mobile phase to identify the best conditions for the separation of VIL enantiomers. Lux-Cellulose-2 column was found to provide the best chiral resolution for VIL enantiomers. Further experiments were conducted using different aqueous-organic mobile phases to achieve the simultaneous chiral-achiral separation of the selected compounds. Experimental design-based optimization was performed by using a face-centered central composite design. The optimal separation conditions (Lux Cellulose-2 stationary phase, 45 °C, mobile phase consisting of methanol/water/diethylamine 80:20:0.2 (v/v/v), and 0.45 mL/min flow rate) provided baseline separation for all 6 compounds. The optimized method was validated according to the ICH guideline and proved to be reliable, specific, linear, precise, and accurate for the determination of at least 0.1% for all impurities in VIL samples. The validated method was applied for determinations from a commercially available drug formulation and proved to be suitable for routine quality control of both enantiomeric and organic impurities of VIL.

Physicochemical Properties and Methods of Analysis of Vildagliptin (Review)

Vildagliptin is an oral agent which is a member of a new class of hypoglycemic drugs, dipeptidylpeptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors. This review presents the physicochemical properties of vildagliptin and assesses analysis methods for its estimation in substances, medicinal formulations, and biological media. These are chromatographic, spectrophotometric, electrochemical and other analysis methods. The material presented may be useful for developing new methods for analysis of medicinal formulations containing vildagliptin. The most widely used method for assay of vildagliptin is HPLC.

Using Metabolite Data to Develop Patient Centric Specification for Amide Impurity in Vildagliptin Tablets

Many specified impurities in vildagliptin’s finished product have been disclosed in the literature that are above their qualification threshold. We used the impurity B (amide impurity) as a case example to explore whether existing literature can be leveraged to determine the safe level of impurity and thereby develop a patient-centric specification (PCS) for impurities. No-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) was derived from rate metabolism information and converted to human equivalent dose (HED). The HED was estimated as 6.5 mg/day. The high qualification levels are supported by repeat dose toxicity studies performed in rats, mice and dogs. Maximum theoretical amount (MTA) was correlated with the maximum observed amount (MOA) to verify whether the exposure was due to impurity and/or metabolite. MOA/MTA was found ≥1 suggesting that metabolism contributed to the amount excreted in feces and therefore could be used to further justify a higher specification limit than the usual one of ≤0.5%. Quite often the drug metabolism and degradation pathways overlap, resulting in the formation of identical constituents. Therefore, metabolism data can be leveraged for deriving safe levels of degradation impurities and develop PCS for impurities.

Comprehensive Insight into Chemical Stability of Important Antidiabetic Drug Vildagliptin Using Chromatography (LC-UV and UHPLC-DAD-MS) and Spectroscopy (Mid-IR and NIR with PCA)

During forced degradation, the intrinsic stability of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) could be determined and possible impurities that would occur during the shelf life of the drug substance or the drug product could be estimated. Vildagliptin belongs to relatively new oral antidiabetic drugs named gliptins, inhibiting dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) and prolonging the activities of the endogenous incretin hormones. At the same time, some gliptins were shown as prone to degradation under specific pH and temperature conditions, as well as in the presence of some reactive excipients. Thus, forced degradation of vildagliptin was performed at high temperature in extreme pH and oxidative conditions. Then, selective LC-UV was used for quantitative determination of non-degraded vildagliptin in the presence of its degradation products and for degradation kinetics. Finally, identification of degradation products of vildagliptin was performed using an UHPLC-DAD-MS with positive ESI. Stability of vildagliptin was also examined in the presence of pharmaceutical excipients, using mid-IR and NIR with principal component analysis (PCA). At 70 °C almost complete disintegration of vildagliptin occurred in acidic, basic, and oxidative media. What is more, high degradation of vildagliptin following the pseudo first-order kinetics was observed at room temperature with calculated k values 4.76 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹, 3.11 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹, and 1.73 × 10⁻⁴ s⁻¹ for oxidative, basic and acidic conditions, respectively. Next, new degradation products of vildagliptin were detected using UHPLC-DAD-MS and their molecular structures were proposed. Three degradants were formed under basic and acidic conditions, and were identified as [(3-hydroxytricyclo- [3.3.1.13,7]decan-1-yl)amino]acetic acid, 1-{[(3-hydroxytricyclo[3.3.1.13,7]decan-1-yl)amino]acetyl}-pyrrolidine-2-carboxylic acid and its O-methyl ester. The fourth degradant was formed in basic, acidic, and oxidative conditions, and was identified as 1-{[(3-hydroxytricyclo[3.3.1.13,7]-decan-1-yl)amino]acetyl}pyrrolidine-2-carboxamide. When stability of vildagliptin was examined in the presence of four excipients under high temperature and humidity, a visible impact of lactose, mannitol, magnesium stearate, and polyvinylpirrolidone was observed, affecting-NH- and CO groups of the drug. The obtained results (kinetic parameters, interactions with excipients) may serve pharmaceutical industry to prevent chemical changes in final pharmaceutical products containing vildagliptin. Other results (e.g., identification of new degradation products) may serve as a starting point for qualifying new degradants of vildagliptin as it is related to substances in pharmacopoeias.

Isolation and characterization of thermal degradation impurity in brimonidine tartrate by HPLC, LC-MS/MS, and 2DNMR

One potential unknown impurity was detected during the analysis of stability batches of brimonidine tartrate (BMT) in the level ranging from 0.03 % to 0.06 % by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Based on the liquid chromatography-mass spectrophotometry (LC-MS) analysis, the unknown impurity structure was presumed as 3,6,11,13,16-pentaazatetracyclo [8.6.0.0²,⁷.0¹²,¹⁶] hexadeca-1,3,5,7,9,12-hexaene. The proposed structure was elucidated, after its isolation using preparative liquid chromatography from the impurity enriched reaction crude sample, using analytical applications such as 1D NMR (¹H, ¹³C and DEPT-135), 2D NMR (HMBC and COSY), high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and infrared spectroscopy (IR). The unknown impurity was prepared from brimonidine by following Ullman coupling reaction in the presence of CuBr₂ in gram scale with optimum purity to use further in analytical developments. The identification, structural elucidation and synthesis of unknown degradation impurity such as BMT-cyclized impurity, and HPLC method validation were reported for the first time in this paper.

UPLC-ESI/Q-TOF MS/MS Method for Determination of Vildagliptin and its Organic Impurities

Vildagliptin (VLG) corresponds to a drug used for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. This disease requires continuous treatment, and so the control of impurities present in it is important to assure the quality of this drug. Thus, it is necessary to use sensitive and selective detection techniques and the ultra-performance liquid chromatography is a better option compared with high-performance liquid chromatography because it enhances the separation efficiency with a shorter analysis time and an increased resolution. This research analysis was accomplished by using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry, and the quantification was performed by using an extracted ion from the VLG drug and its main organic impurities of synthesis. During the validation process, following international standards, the method proved to be linear for the tree substances (R2 = 0.997-0.998) and the analysis of variance showed a non-significant linearity deviation (P > 0.05). Three critical factors were selected to evaluate method robustness with a full factorial experimental design, and the changes in the parameters were found to be not significant for the quantification of VLG and its impurities. The ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the determination of impurities in VLG was precise, accurate and robust proving to be effective for analysis in the pharmaceutical industry and to improve the quality, safety and effectiveness of the new drug developed.

Quantitative Conductometric Determination of Sitagliptin, Linagliptin, Vildagliptin and Alogliptin by Applying the Concept of Drug-Metal Ion Interaction

Cost of analysis and length of analytical procedure are among the most concerning factors in drug analysis. As conductometric analysis has been considered to be relatively inexpensive analytical technique offering fast analysis of drugs, in this study our aim was to develop a rapid and cost-effective method for quantitative determination of sitagliptin, linagliptin, vildagliptin and alogliptin in bulk and dosage forms. The test drugs were allowed to complex with metal ion (Cu2+) in the titration cell, which resulted in the change of conductance of the solution. The corrected conductance was calculated and graph was plotted between corrected conductance and the volume of the analyte solution added. The point of maximum change in the corrected conductance was considered as end point of the titration. The method was found to be linear in the concentration range of 1.0 – 1.4 mM for all analytes with good correlation coefficient (R2 ˃ 0.999). The %RSD of the corrected conductance values were in the range of 0.046-1.837, while the recovery of analytes were within 100 ± 2%, indicating that the method was precise and accurate. The specificity of the method was demonstrated by no interference from blank and placebo. The method was successfully applied for quantitative analysis of all the drugs in the dosage forms. The current method has a major advantage that it provided easy, fast and economical analysis of sitagliptin, linagliptin, vildagliptin and alogliptin in bulk drugs and formulations using conductivity meter. KEYWORDS:

Prospects to the formation and control of potential dimer impurity E of pantoprazole sodium sesquihydrate

Pantoprazole sodium, a substituted benzimidazole derivative, is an irreversible proton pump inhibitor which is primarily used for the treatment of duodenal ulcers, gastric ulcers, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The monographs of European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.) and United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) specify six impurities, viz.; impurities A, B, C, D, E and F, respectively for its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). The identification and synthesis of all impurities except impurity E are well described in the literature; however, there is no report related to impurity E. The prospects to the formation and controlling of impurity E up to ≤0.03% in the synthesis of pantoprazole sodium sesquihydrate (PAN) were discussed in detail for the first time. The present work described the journey towards the successful development of an optimal preparation procedure of dimer impurity E. The most plausible mechanism involved in the formation of impurity E has been proposed.

Synthesis, isolation, identification and characterization of new process-related impurity in isoproterenol hydrochloride by HPLC, LC/ESI-MS and NMR

One unknown impurity (Imp-II) during the analysis of laboratory batches of isoproterenol hydrochloride was detected in the level ranging from 0.04% to 0.12% by high performance liquid chromatography with UV detection. The unknown impurity structure was proposed as 4-[2-(propan-2-ylamino)ethyl]benzene-1,2-diol (Imp-II) using the liquid chromatography--mass spectrophotometry (LC--MS) analysis. Imp-II was isolated by semi-preparative liquid chromatography from the impurity-enriched reaction crude sample. Its proposed structure was confirmed by nuclear magnetic spectroscopy such as ¹H, ¹³C, DEPT (1D NMR), HSQC (2D NMR) and infrared spectroscopy (IR), and retention time and purity with HPLC followed by the chemical synthesis. Due to less removable nature of Imp-II during the purification, the synthetic process was optimized proficiently to control the formation of Imp-II below to the limit<0.12% in the course of reaction. The new chemical route was developed for the preparation of this impurity in required quantity with purity to use as reference standard. The most probable mechanism for the formation of Imp-II was discussed in details.

Identification, synthesis and structural characterization of process related and degradation impurities of acrivastine and validation of HPLC method

Four impurities (Imp-I-IV) were detected using gradient HPLC method in few laboratory batches of acrivastine in the level of 0.03-0.12% and three impurities (Imp-I-III) were found to be known and one (Imp-IV) was unknown. In forced degradation study, the drug is degraded into four degradation products under oxidation and photolytic conditions. Two impurities (Imp-III and -IV) were concurred with process related impurities whereas Imp-V and -VI were identified as new degradation impurities. Based on LC-ESI/MSⁿ study, the chemical structures of new impurities were presumed as 1-[(2E)-3-(4-methylphenyl)-3-{6-[(1E)-3-oxobut-1-en-1-yl]pyridin-2-yl}prop-2-en-1-yl]pyrrolidin-1-ium-1-olate (Imp-IV), 1-{[3-(4-methylphenyl)-3-{6-[(1E)-3-oxobut-1-en-1-yl]pyridin-2-yl}oxiran-2-yl]methyl}pyrrolidin-1-ium-1-olate (Imp-V) and 2-[2-(4-methylphenyl)-3-[(1-oxidopyrrolidin-1-ium-1-yl)methyl]oxiran-2-yl]-6-[(1E)-3-oxobut-1-en-1-yl]pyridin-1-ium-1-olate (Imp-VI), and confirmed by their synthesis followed by spectroscopic analysis, IR, NMR (¹H, ¹³C) and mass. An efficient and selective high-performance liquid chromatography method has been developed and resolved well the drug related substances on a Phenomenex Gemini C-18 (250×4.6mm, particle size 5μm) column. The mobile phase was composed of sodium dihydrogen phosphate (10mM) and methanol, temperature at 25°C, and a PDA detector set at 254nm used for detection. The method was validated with respect to specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy, and sensitivity and satisfactory results were achieved. Identification, synthesis, characterization of impurities and method validation were first reported in this paper.