Ensuring robustness in the quality of antibiotic susceptibility test discs for four novel antibiotics.

Antibiotic susceptibility test (AST) discs are used as an in-vitro diagnostic tool to select the appropriate antibiotic to treat an infection. Generally, the concentration of the drug loaded on to the AST discs is measured by studying its activity against quality control organisms. This methodology has several limitations-it is time consuming, requires trained manpower, has a wider acceptance criteria of zone of inhibitions-causing ambiguity in judging smaller variations in drug concentration. To overcome these issues, we have developed and validated high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) methods for the determination of strength of AST discs for in-house researched antibiotics, namely Levonadifloxacin/WCK 771, Nafithromycin/WCK 4873, Cefepime-Tazobactam/WCK 4282, and Cefepime-Zidebactam/WCK 5222. The drugs were extracted from the AST discs using an appropriate solvent. The developed methods are simple, accurate, precise, reproducible, rugged, and robust. They are efficient in terms of time, and can be easily conducted in a quality control laboratory during release as well as stability evaluation of AST disc. Application of HPLC methods for the determination of strength of AST discs ensures flawless quality and, consequently, a better selection of drugs to treat bacterial infections in clinics.

Enantiomeric Separation and Thermodynamic Investigation of (R)-N-Tert-Butoxy Carbonyl-Piperidine-3-Carboxylic Acid Hydrazide, a Key Starting Material of Zidebactam.

A new selective, accurate and precise chiral high-performance liquid chromatography method for the separation of (R)-N-tert-butoxy carbonyl-piperidine-3-carboxylic acid hydrazide (RE) and its enantiomer was developed. RE is a key starting material of novel ß-lactam enhancer drug Zidebactam. Chiral resolution of more than 10 was achieved on Chiralpak IA column using mobile phase consisting of n-hexane, ethanol in the ratio of 70:30, v/v. The flow rate of the mobile phase was 1.0 mL min-1 and the column oven temperature was 30°C. Detection was carried out at 225 nm. The developed method was validated as per the International Conference on Harmonization guideline. Limit of detection and limit of quantification of the enantiomeric impurity (S)-N-tert-butoxy carbonyl-piperidine-3-carboxylic acid hydrazide (SE) was 2.5 and 7.5 µg mL-1, respectively. Mean recovery of the SE was 96.83 ± 1.4%. The effect of thermodynamic parameters on the chiral separation was evaluated.

Impurity Profiling of a Novel Anti-MRSA Antibacterial Drug: Alalevonadifloxacin.

Alalevonadifloxacin (ALA, formerly described as WCK 2349) is a novel antibacterial drug developed to treat infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria. The current study was aimed to identify and quantify impurities in ALA. Mass spectrometry (MS) compatible reverse phase liquid chromatographic method was developed to identify the impurities in ALA. Three impurities were identified based on the molecular ion peak and their product ions. These impurities were synthesized and characterized using MS and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry. However, this method was unable to resolve the diastereomeric impurity, which is likely to be formed during synthesis. Therefore, another method was developed using YMC Chiral NEA-[S] as a chiral stationary phase and validated for quantification of all impurities including diastereomeric impurity. The developed method was employed for quality control and stability studies of the ALA drug substance used in pre-clinical and clinical studies.

Liquid Chromatographic Separation and Thermodynamic Investigation of Ethyl Nipecotate Enantiomers on Immobilized Amylose-Based Chiral Stationary Phase.

Ethyl nipecotate enantiomers are widely used as chiral building blocks in the synthesis of drug substances. An efficient and economic chiral high-performance liquid chromatographic method for determination of enantiomeric purity of ethyl nipecotate is developed and validated. Chiral separation was achieved on immobilized amylose-based stationary phase using a mixture of n-hexane: ethanol: diethylamine (80:20:0.1, v/v/v) as mobile phase. Resolution between R-(-)-ethyl nipecotate (REN) and S-(+)-ethyl nipecotate (SEN) peaks was found to be 3.59. The detector response of SEN exhibited an excellent linearity over the concentration range of 4.5-120 µg mL-1. The limit of detection and limit of quantification for SEN were 0.016 and 0.045 µg and REN were 0.015 and 0.043 µg, respectively. The influence of column oven temperatures on chiral retention and separation was studied in the range of 25°C to 50°C; the thermodynamic parameters ΔH°, ΔS° and ΔG° were evaluated from van't Hoff plots and used to explain the strength of interaction between analyte and stationary phase.

Identification of metabolites of novel Anti-MRSA fluoroquinolone WCK 771 in mouse, rat, rabbit, dog, monkey and human urine using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.

WCK 771 is an l-arginine salt of levonadifloxacin (LND) being developed in intravenous dosage form and has recently completed a phase III trial in India. The pharmacokinetics of WCK 771, a novel anti-MRSA fluoroquinolone, were examined in mice, rats, rabbits, dogs, monkeys and humans after systemic administration during pre-clinical and clinical investigations. Urine and serum were evaluated for identification of metabolites. It was observed that LND mainly follows phase II biotransformation pathways. All of the species showed a different array of metabolites. In mice, rabbit and dog, the drug was mainly excreted in the form of O-glucuronide (M7) and acyl glucuronide (M8) conjugates, whereas in rat and human major metabolite was sulfate conjugate (M6). Monkeys exhibited equal distribution of sulfate (M6) and glucuronide conjugates (M7, M8). In addition to these three major phase II metabolites; five phase I oxidative metabolites (M1, M2, M3, M4 and M5) were identified using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Out of these eight metabolites M2, M3, M5, M7 and M8 are reported for the first time.

Development and Validation of the Chiral Liquid Chromatography Method for Separation of Enantiomeric Impurity in Novel Oxazolidinone Antibacterial Agent WCK 4086.

A highly stereo-specific liquid chromatographic method was developed and validated for the quantification of enantiomeric impurity (R-enantiomer) in novel oxazolidinone antibacterial agent (WCK 4086), a drug substance. The separation was achieved on Chiralpak AD-H (amylose-based chiral stationary phase) using a mobile phase consisting of n-hexane:2-propanol:methanol:trifluoroacetic acid (80:10:10:0.4, v/v/v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min-1. Chromatographic resolution between two enantiomers was found to be more than 2.0. Method was extensively validated for the quantification of R-enantiomer in WCK 4086 and proved to be robust. Method was found to be highly specific as all other related impurities were separated from the enantiomers. The calibration curve for R-enantiomer showed an excellent linearity over the concentration range of 1-5 µg mL-1. Limit of quantitation (LOQ) and limit of detection (LOD) for R-enantiomer were 0.009 µg and 0.003 µg, respectively. Average recovery of the R-enantiomer was in the range of 94.55-109.67%. Analytical solutions were found to be stable up to 70 h at room temperature. Developed method was found to be specific, sensitive, precise and accurate for quantitative determination of R-enantiomer in WCK 4086 and useful for controlling the enantiomeric impurity in drug substance used for preclinical studies.

Stability-Indicating LC Method for the Determination of Prasugrel Hydrochloride in Pharmaceutical Dosage Form.

A simple, rapid and precise method was developed for the quantitative estimation of prasugrel hydrochloride in pharmaceutical dosage form. A chromatographic separation of prasugrel and its degradants was achieved with Zorbax XDB C(8), 150 × 4.6 mm, 3.5µm analytical column using aqueous solution of 0.05 M ammonium acetate pH 4.5 with acetic acid-acetonitrile (40:60 v/v). The instrumental settings include flow rate of 1.0 ml/min, column temperature at 30°C and detector wavelength of 254 nm using a photodiode array detector. Theoretical plates for prasugrel were 7023. Tailing factor for prasugrel was 1.11. Prasugrel was exposed to thermal, photolytic, hydrolytic and oxidative stress conditions, and the stressed samples were analyzed by the proposed method. Peak homogeneity data of prasugrel was obtained using photodiode array detector in the stressed sample chromatograms, which demonstrated the specificity of the method for the estimation in presence of degradants. The described method showed excellent linearity over a range of 10-300 µg/ml for prasugrel. The correlation coefficient is 0.999. The relative standard deviation of peak area for six measurements is always less than 2%. Overall, the proposed method was found to be suitable and accurate for quantitative determination and stability study of prasugrel in pharmaceutical dosage form.