Quality-by-design-based development and validation of a stability-indicating UPLC method for quantification of teriflunomide in the presence of degradation products and its application to in-vitro dissolution

Quality by Design: A Suitable Methodology in Industrial Pharmacy for Costa Rican Universities

This review aims to present the Quality by Design (QbD) model as a suitable methodology to perform research in the academic Costa Rican institutions that teach Pharmacy. Pubmed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar databases were screened for original research papers and review papers published not more than ten years ago. Institutional repositories from the different universities were reviewed as well. The QbD model stands out as a great methodology for carrying out research projects regarding Pharmaceutical Sciences, but especially for Industrial Pharmacy, where it has contributed in terms of formulation development, manufacturing, and quality control. Academic research based on this model enables the training and development of practical, scientific, and leadership skills in Industrial Pharmacy students. The generated knowledge can be shared in classrooms, which represents an ideal environment to communicate research results and to foster collaborative work between researchers, professors, and students. Moreover, research performed through a QbD approach increases the confidence shown by the industrial sector and health regulatory authorities in the quality of the research, products, and knowledge that are developed and created in an Academy. As a result, the implementation of the model has allowed the creation, transfer, and materialization of knowledge from the Costa Rican Academy to different local pharmaceutical industries.

Quantitative determination of cyanoacetic acid content in teriflunomide drug substance by ion chromatography using conductivity detector

Background

The current study focuses on the development and validation of an analytical method for quantifying cyanoacetic acid (CAA) in teriflunomide drug substance using a high-performance ion chromatography (IC) with cation suppressed conductivity detection (TFM). Water was used as the diluent for preparing the sample solution, which was injected into a standard chromatographic device with 250 mm, 4.0 mm ID, and 5.0 μm particle size Metrosep A Supp 5 Ion exchange column and a suppressed conductivity detector. At a flow rate of 0.6 mL min−1 and a temperature of 40 °C, the mobile phase was delivered in an isocratic mode.

Results

CAA and TFM had retention times of 12.78 and 15.82 min, respectively. CAA has a limit of detection (LOD) of 33 μg/g and a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 101 μg/g, respectively. For LOD and LOQ accuracy, the percentage RSD of CAA is 1.7 and 1.2, respectively. The average CAA recovery percentage was found to be between 98.6 and 100.1%. With a value of 0.9998, the calibration curve yielded an excellent linear correlation coefficient for CAA. According to the ICH guidelines, all verification parameters are within the range, indicating that the system is stable.

Conclusion

The elution time and run time in the currently developed ion chromatography analytical method have been reduced, demonstrating that the method is cost-effective and generally accepted, as well as simple and functional, and can be used in routine quality control tests in the industry.

QbD-Based UPLC Method for Quantification of Brexpiprazole in Presence of Impurities and Application to In Vitro Dissolution

Quality-by-design-based UPLC method was developed for chromatographic separation to quantify the antischizophrenic drug brexpiprazole in the presence of impurities. Research findings from pH-scouting studies were used as control variables which influence the chromatographic separation. The peak tailing and resolution are the response variables and established the design-space by DoE-study for selection of suitable chromatographic conditions. Separation was achieved with lower particle size stationary phase and buffer pH 2.0 in the mobile phase. The present method developed through C18 50 × 2.1 mm, Ethylene-Bridged-Hybrid technology column with 1.7 μm particles, mobile phase consists of pH 2.0 buffer and acetonitrile (67:33 v/v), flow rate of 0.5 mL min-1 and detection wavelength at 215 nm. The retention time of brexpiprazole is 0.6 min and all impurities were eluted within 2 min. The method linearity ranges were 20.4-61.3 μg mL-1 for assay and 0.88-6.59 μg mL-1 for dissolution with correlation-coefficients of 0.9999 and 0.9998 for assay and dissolution, respectively. The recovery values were found in between 99.3 and 100.9%. The method shows stability-indicating on the basis of noninterference of placebo, and impurities from forced-degradation studies. Method validation was carried out according to ICH guideline Q2 (R1).

Development of Validated Stability Indicating HPTLC Method for the Estimation of Teriflunomide in Bulk and Tablet Dosage Form

Background:

Teriflunomide is an immunosuppressive agent. Immunosuppressive agents are drugs that inhibit or prevent activity of immune system. Teriflunomide was investigated as a medication for multiple sclerosis (MS). Various studies have reported the HPLC, UPLC, LC/MS methods for the estimation of teriflunomide. However, till date stability indicating HPTLC analysis method has not been reported for the estimation of teriflunomide in bulk and tablet dosage form.

Objective:

Objective of the present work was to develop and validate stability indicating high performance thin layer chromatography method for the determination of teriflunomide in bulk and tablet dosage form.

Methods:

Chromatography was performed on aluminium plates coated with silica gel 60F254 using toluene, methanol and acetic acid (7.5: 2.5: 0.05 v/v/v) as mobile phase. Densitometric analysis was performed at 254 nm. The method was validated with different parameters such as linearity, precision, accuracy, specificity, robustness, limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ). The RF value of teriflunomide was 0.56 ± 0.03. The method is sensitive (limit of quantification 17.83 ng/band), precise (RSD ≤ 1.34%), accurate (drug recovery 98.49–99.53 %), and linear over the range 100–600 ng/band (r2 0.998).

Results:

Degradation products were found in stress conditions did not interfere with the detection of teriflunomide; therefore, the proposed technique can be considered stability-indicating. Teriflunomide did not degrade under alkaline hydrolysis, thermal and photolytic conditions but showed degradation under acid hydrolysis and oxidation with about 14.5 and 13.8 % decompositions respectively.

Conclusion:

The developed method was satisfactorily applied for the analysis of pharmaceutical preparations and proved to be specific and accurate for quality control of the cited drugs in their tablet dosage form.

Validated HPLC Method for Assay and Content Uniformity Testing of Roflumilast in Blend and Tablets

Roflumilast is a selective enzyme inhibitor of phosphodiesterase-4. This drug is recommended for treatment of patients suffering from chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease with chronic-bronchitis. Roflumilast is not official in pharmacopoeia and the reported methods are having high chromatographic run times. A short run time HPLC method was developed for assay and content uniformity testing to determine the roflumilast in blend and tablets. The mobile phase consists of 10 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate monohydrate buffer and acetonitrile in the ratio of 45:55 v/v. The HPLC method was developed using accucore-C18 150 × 4.6 mm, 4 μm column with a flow rate of 1.0 mL min-1, 215 nm wavelength and 10 μL injection volume with run time of 5 min. The method linearity was proved between 5.02-40.17 μg mL-1 and obtained correlation-coefficient value is 1.0000. The mean recovery of roflumilast was 100.6%. The stability indicating nature was established and performed the validation by considering ICH Q2 (R1) recommendations.

Chemometrics Approaches in Forced Degradation Studies of Pharmaceutical Drugs

Chemometrics is the chemistry field responsible for planning and extracting the maximum of information of experiments from chemical data using mathematical tools (linear algebra, statistics, and so on). Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can form impurities when exposed to excipients or environmental variables such as light, high temperatures, acidic or basic conditions, humidity, and oxidative environment. By considering that these impurities can affect the safety and efficacy of the drug product, it is necessary to know how these impurities are yielded and to establish the pathway of their formation. In this context, forced degradation studies of pharmaceutical drugs have been used for the characterization of physicochemical stability of APIs. These studies are also essential in the validation of analytical methodologies, in order to prove the selectivity of methods for the API and its impurities and to create strategies to avoid the formation of degradation products. This review aims to demonstrate how forced degradation studies have been actually performed and the applications of chemometric tools in related studies. Some papers are going to be discussed to exemplify the chemometric applications in forced degradation studies.