Eco-Friendly Stability-Indicating HPLC Method for Related Compounds in Pemetrexed Ditromethamine (Antineoplastic Agent) for Injection

Abstract

Abstract Background An eco-friendly analytical technique was developed with the intention of preserving the environment by using green chemistry principles. Pemetrexed is a folate analogue indicated for the treatment of advanced lung cancer. Objective Development of a green stability-indicating HPLC method for the quantification of pemetrexed ditromethamine (PDT) impurities in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and parenteral dosage form. Methods Chromatographic separation was achieved using a Zorbax SB C18 column (150 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., 3.5 µ particle size) with perchlorate buffer (pH 3.0 ± 0.1, 50 mM) as mobile phase A and acetonitrile–perchlorate (90 + 10, v/v) buffer as mobile phase B at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min with a column temperature of 40°C ± 0.5°C. All analytes were well resolved by gradient elution with a total run time of 75 min. The UV detection wavelength was 230 nm. Results The RP-HPLC method is capable of resolving all the degradation and process impurities for PDT API and parenteral dosage form. The related compounds method was validated in accordance with International conference on harmonization (ICH) Q2(R1) and United states of Pharmacopoeia (USP) <1225> guidelines, and found to be accurate, specific, precise, linear, robust and stability-indicating. The precision and intermediate results were <5% CV for all the impurities. The accuracy for all the impurities was found to be between 90 and 110%. The linearity of regression co-efficient values for all the impurities were found to be more than 0.999. Conclusion The proposed related compounds method is found suitable for the determination of process and degradation impurities of commercial formulations, stability samples in QC analysis for PDT API, and drug product. Highlights The developed liquid chromatographic method greenness and eco-friendliness were assessed using the green analytical procedure index (GAPI) and the analytical greenness (AGREE) tool, and found to be green. A PDT detoxification procedure was also developed to reduce environmental pollution.