Green adherent degradation kinetics study of Nirmatrelvir, an oral anti-COVID-19: characterization of degradation products using LC-MS with insilico toxicity profile

Sustainable and technically smart spectrophotometric determination of PAXLOVID: a comprehensive ecological and analytical performance rating

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the administration of ritonavir (RIT)-boosted nirmatrelvir (NMV) on May 25, 2023, for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in patients who are at high risk of developing severe COVID-19. In accordance with sustainability and environmental friendliness, simple, eco-friendly, and sustainable spectrophotometric methods were established for concurrently estimating RIT and NMV in newly launched copackaged pills. The suggested solutions for resolving the spectral overlap between RIT and NMV involve the following mathematical methods: the first derivative method (1D), second derivative method (2D), and dual-wavelength zero-order method (DWZ). When ethanol was used as a green dilution solvent, the linearity range was adjusted (10-250 µg/mL) for both drugs. The procedures resulted in a high correlation coefficient (not less than 0.9996) and satisfactory levels of detection and quantification. Additionally, method validation was performed in accordance with International Council for Harmonization norms. Moreover, a detailed ecological and sustainability evaluation protocol was established to confirm the greenness and whiteness of the methods. Finally, the proposed method, along with previously reported methods for analysing NMV and RIT, were reviewed analytically and ecologically.

Hyphenating sustainability with chemometrics in chromatographic analysis of COVID combo therapy, nirmatrelvir and Molnupiravir, in presence of their overlapping degradation products; blue-green dual evaluation tools

Our manuscript managed to hyphenate the novelty and sustainability in one method. A novel combination of molnupiravir (MNP) and nirmatrelvir (NTV) was found to be a potential symbiotic therapy against SARS-CoV-2. Yet, there is no analytical method published for either determination or stability investigation of this combination simultaneously. So, the proposed HPLC technique focused on determination of MNP and NTV in presence of their degradation products. The sustainability was achieved in our method by using chemometrics tools to quantify NTV in presence of its co-eluted degradation product (NTV-D) without excessive time and solvent usage for separation (run time 5 min.). Moreover, the linearity parameters of both MNP and NTV, including correlation coefficient, LOD and LOQ, have been enhanced significantly after chemometrics treatment through convolution of the resultant derivative curves using trigonometric Fourier function. For example, LOQ of MNP decreased from 3.53 to 0.31 µg/mL and for NTV, LOQ decreased from 4.98 to 2.10 µg/mL after chemometrics treatment. The stability results of the proposed method indicates that no interaction or change in stability behavior of both drugs when co-administered with each other. Thus, this can be used as an empirical basis to initiate clinical trials of this combination for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Additionally, in order to determine the impact of chemometric methods in minimizing analysis time and reducing solvent, energy, and waste consumption, our chemometric methodology is evaluated in terms of greenness and blueness (dichromic assessment) using AGREE and BAGI, respectively. Besides, the method sustainability using Hexagon was evaluated.

Development of a novel quality by design-enabled stability-indicating HPLC method and its validation for the quantification of nirmatrelvir in bulk and pharmaceutical dosage forms

A systematic and novel quality by design-enabled, rapid, simple, and economic stability-indicating HPLC method for quantifying nirmatrelvir (NMT) was successfully developed and validated. An analytical target profile (ATP) was established, and critical analytical attributes (CAAs) were allocated to meet the ATP requirements. The method used chromatographic separation using a Purosphere column with a 4.6 mm inner diameter × 250 mm (2.5 μm). The analysis occurred at 50°C with a flow rate of 1.2 mL/min and detection at 220 nm. A 10 μL sample was injected, and the mobile phase consisted of two components: mobile phase A, containing 0.1% formic acid in water (20%), and mobile phase B, containing 0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile (80%). The diluent was prepared by mixing acetonitrile and water at a 90:10 v/v ratio. The retention time for the analyte was determined to be 2.78 min. Accuracy exceeded 99%, and the correlation coefficient was greater than 0.999. The validated HPLC method was characterized as precise, accurate, and robust. Significantly, NMT was found to be susceptible to alkaline, acidic, and peroxide conditions during forced degradation testing. The stability-indicating method developed effectively separated the degradation products formed during stress testing, underlining its effectiveness in stability testing and offering accuracy, reliability, and sensitivity in determining NMT.

Tailoring two white chromatographic platforms for simultaneous estimation of ritonavir-boosted nirmatrelvir in their novel pills: degradation, validation, and environmental impact studies

As the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet over, Pfizer has launched the novel pill Paxlovid® (Nirmatrelvir (NMV) co-packaged with ritonavir (RIT)) as an effective medication for hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients. Making pharmaceutical analysis greener and more sustainable has lately become the main direction of the research community. In this context, two fast, green, and stability-indicating chromatographic methods were designed for the neat quantitative determination of NMV and RIT in their bulk and dosage forms. Method I is deemed the first electro-driven attempt for the assay of Paxlovid®. Herein, the optimized conditions of the Micellar Electrokinetic Chromatographic (MEKC) method were 50 mM borate buffer at pH 9.2 with 25 mM sodium lauryl sulfate (SDS) being used as the background electrolyte (BGE) on a deactivated fused silica capillary (50 cm effective length × 50 μm id). Method II was an isocratic reversed-phase HPLC separation method using Zorbax-Eclipse C18 (4.6 × 250 mm, 5 μm particle size) column and 50 mM ammonium acetate buffer at pH 5 and acetonitrile as mobile phase constituents at a flow rate of 1 mL min-1. For the sake of simplicity and increasing sensitivity, a single wavelength of 210 nm was used for the two methods to assay both drugs. Linear correlations between peak areas and concentration were observed in the ranges of 10-200 μg mL-1 for NMV and 5-100 μg mL-1 RIT in both methods. The impact of versatile stress conditions such as hydrolysis, oxidation, and photolysis on the stability of NMV and RIT was studied. Fortunately, both methodologies were able to separate both drugs from their degradants. Thus, the stability indicating power of the methods was proved. The derived methods were statistically validated in agreement with the ICH guidelines. Furthermore, the environmental friendliness and sustainability of these methods were investigated and compared with the cited methods using the holistic multicriteria evaluation tools namely Hexagon, AGREE, and RGB12 metrics. Conclusively, the proposed methods offered reliable, feasible, economic, white, and stability-indicating alternatives to the cited chromatographic methods.

Development and validation of an effective and sensitive technique for nitrate determination in fruits and vegetables using HPLC/PDA

This study aims to develop an effective and sensitive HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) method to determine the nitrate concentration in fruits and vegetables (F & V) using a C18 column (ZORBAX Eclipse XDB-C18, 80Å, 250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm (Agilent Technologies)) maintained at 40 0 C, a mobile phase made up of methanol and buffer (pentane sulfonic acid sodium salt solution), and a Photo Diode Array Detector (PDA) at 225 nm. The developed method is validated in terms of selectivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, suitability, the limit of detection (LOD), and the limit of quantification (LOQ) according to the European Union Decision 2002/657/EC. The result revealed that a ratio of 30: 70 of the organic modifier methanol and buffer with pH 2.8 shows the highest efficiency. The calibration curve shows linearity with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.9985. The LOD and LOQ were found to be 2.26 mg/kg and 7.46 mg/kg. The recovery was in the range of 98.96-100.21%. Moreover, the greenness assessment scores of different approaches (eco-scale score of 76, AGREE score of 0.71, and few red shades in GAPI portray) were at a very excellent level. Thus, our developed method is fully validated and can determine the nitrate content in F & V.