HPLC/MS Analysis of Historical Pharmaceutical Preparations of Heroin and Cocaine

A systematic review of the stability of finished pharmaceutical products and drug substances beyond their labeled expiry dates

In recent years, there has been a very active debate about the stability of drug products especially after exceeding the expiry dates. The regulatory authorities require comprehensive stability data for market approval. The shelf-life obtained determines the expiry date, which is typically between 1 and 5 years and commonly set in a conservative manner. Conducting stability studies is a resource- and time-consuming matter for the pharmaceutical manufacturer. Short shelf-lives of drug products are also a challenge for managers of hospitals, nursing homes, and strategic national stockpile agencies which have to dispose of large quantities of outdated medicines every year. This conflict raises the question whether shelf-lives are often longer than the labeled one. In the past years, the FDA has launched several programs for shelf-life extension in order to defer replacement costs and to prevent drug shortages due to supply disruption. The aim of this review was to bring together the available literature of expired drug products as well as historical pharmaceutical relicts with an age of more than 80 years and to discuss the actual shelf-life with regard to the respective dosage form and the affiliation of the drug class. It seems to be reasonable for a large portion of drugs to extend the expiry dates far beyond five years.

Aptamer functionalized microcantilever sensors for cocaine detection

A cocaine-specific aptamer was used as a receptor molecule in a microcantilever-based surface stress sensor for detection of cocaine molecules. An interferometric technique that relies on measuring differential displacement between two microcantilevers (a sensing/reference pair) was utilized to measure the cocaine/aptamer binding induced surface stress changes. Sensing experiments were performed for different concentrations of cocaine from 25 to 500 μM in order to determine the sensor response as a function of cocaine concentration. In the lower concentration range from 25 to 100 μM, surface stress values increased proportionally to coverage of aptamer/cocaine complexes from 11 to 26 mN/m. However, as the cocaine concentration was increased beyond 100 μM, the surface stress values demonstrated a weaker dependence on the affinity complex surface coverage. On the basis of a sensitivity of 3 mN/m for the surface stress measurement, the lowest detectable threshold for the cocaine concentration is estimated to be 5 μM. Sensing cantilevers could be regenerated and reused because of reversible thermal denaturation of aptamer.