Dispersive Raman Spectroscopy for Quantifying Amorphous Drug Content in Intact Tablets.

Process-induced inadvertent phase change of an active pharmaceutical ingredient in a drug product could impact chemical stability, physical stability, shelf life, and bioperformance. In this study, dispersive Raman spectroscopy is presented as an alternative method for the nondestructive, high-throughput, at-line quantification of amorphous conversion. A quantitative Raman method was developed using a multivariate partial least squares (PLS) regression calibration technique with solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) spectroscopy as the reference method. Compositionally identical calibration tablets containing 20% w/w total MK-A drug in varying weight proportions (0%-50% w/w based on total MK-A) of amorphous and crystalline MK-A were compressed at 10-45 kN force. PLS predictions of amorphous content of tablets using Raman spectroscopy correlated well with ssNMR quantification. The predictive accuracy of this model led to a strong correlation (R2 = 0.987) with a root mean-squared error of prediction of 1.5% w/w amorphous MK-A in tablets up to 50% w/w amorphous conversion in compressive stress range of 60-320 MPa. Overall, these results suggest that dispersive Raman spectroscopy offers fast, sensitive, and high-throughput (<5 min/tablet) method for quantitating amorphous conversion.

Evaluation of transmission and reflection modalities for measuring content uniformity of pharmaceutical tablets with near-infrared spectroscopy.

This paper examines how one may assess spectral changes with instrument configuration (or composition), in combination with the spectral changes in the measurement that are caused by experimental effects, and subsequently select an appropriate measurement modality for tablet content uniformity determination with near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. Two NIR spectrometers furnished with three configurations in the sample measurement interface were evaluated. One spectrometer, Bruker MPA (multiple purpose analyzer), was equipped with two measurement modalities, diffuse transmission (DT) and diffuse reflection based on integrating sphere optics (DR/IS). The other spectrometer, Bruker StepOne, was equipped only with diffuse reflection mode based on a fiber-optic probe (DR/FO). The data were collected with each of the configurations for the tablets associated with two dosage strengths differing significantly in diameter and thickness. Spectral diagnosis was performed in terms of sensitivity and selectivity. The signal-to-noise ratio computed for the data collected with the DT and DR/IS spectrometers was approximately an order of magnitude greater than that computed for the DR/FO spectrometer. The net-analyte-signal-based selectivity analysis of NIR spectra associated with the sample tablet and the placebo tablet indicated that both transmission and reflection mode provided similar selectivity when the optimal spectral range was chosen. A partial least squares (PLS) calibration model was developed for each data set. The overall standard error of calibration for each DT and DR/IS measurement was approximately 0.3% in weight for each strength, significantly better than the value of 1.0% in weight produced by the DR/FO measurement. This result was consistent with the sensitivity analysis based on spectral noise characterization. The poor analytical performance of the DR/FO spectrometer was attributed to the small illumination spot size of the reflection probe and thus the sensitivity of the measurements to the tablet engraving. The PLS analysis and spectral diagnostics both showed that transmission and reflection modes based on the Bruker MPA provided similar measurement accuracy for each strength. However, the robustness study clearly revealed that the transmission mode would be more robust than the reflection mode when there is considerable variability in the chemical composition and physical properties of tablets.

Content uniformity determination of pharmaceutical tablets using five near-infrared reflectance spectrometers: a process analytical technology (PAT) approach using robust multivariate calibration transfer algorithms.

Near-infrared calibration models were developed for the determination of content uniformity of pharmaceutical tablets containing 29.4% drug load for two dosage strengths (X and Y). Both dosage strengths have a circular geometry and the only difference is the size and weight. Strength X samples weigh approximately 425 mg with a diameter of 12 mm while strength Y samples, weigh approximately 1700 mg with a diameter of 20mm. Data used in this study were acquired from five NIR instruments manufactured by two different vendors. One of these spectrometers is a dispersive-based NIR system while the other four were Fourier transform (FT) based. The transferability of the optimized partial least-squares (PLS) calibration models developed on the primary instrument (A) located in a research facility was evaluated using spectral data acquired from secondary instruments B, C, D and E. Instruments B and E were located in the same research facility as spectrometer A while instruments C and D were located in a production facility 35 miles away. The same set of tablet samples were used to acquire spectral data from all instruments. This scenario mimics the conventional pharmaceutical technology transfer from research and development to production. Direct cross-instrument prediction without standardization was performed between the primary and each secondary instrument to evaluate the robustness of the primary instrument calibration model. For the strength Y samples, this approach was successful for data acquired on instruments B, C, and D producing root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 1.05, 1.05, and 1.22%, respectively. However for instrument E data, this approach was not successful producing an RMSEP value of 3.40%. A similar deterioration was observed for the strength X samples, with RMSEP values of 2.78, 5.54, 3.40, and 5.78% corresponding to spectral data acquired on instruments B, C, D, and E, respectively. To minimize the effect of instrument variability, calibration transfer techniques such as piecewise direct standardization (PDS) and wavelet hybrid direct standardization (WHDS) were used. The PDS approach, the RMSEP values for strength X samples were lowered to 1.22, 1.12, 1.19, and 1.08% for instruments B, C, D, and E, respectively. Similar improvements were obtained using the WHDS approach with RMSEP values of 1.36, 1.42, 1.36, and 0.98% corresponding to instruments B, C, D, and E, respectively.