Comparison of several strategies for the deployment of a multivariate regression model on several handheld NIR instruments. Application to the quality control of medicines.

Chemometrics applied to spectroscopic measurements such as near-infrared are gaining more and more importance for quality control of pharmaceutical products. Handheld near-infrared devices show great promise as a medicines quality screening technique for post-marketing surveillance. These devices are able to detect substandard and falsified medicines in pharmaceutical supply chains and enable rapid action before these medicines reach patients. The instrumental and environmental changes, expected or not, can adversely affect the analytical performances of prediction models developed for routine applications. Based on a previous study, PLS prediction models were developed and validated on three similar handheld NIR transmission spectrophotometers of the same model and from same company. These models have shown to be effective in analyzing metformin tablet samples, but significant spectral differences between handheld systems complicated their deployment for routine analysis. In this study, different strategies have been applied and compared to correct the instrumental variations, including global modelling (GM) and calibration transfer methods (Direct Standardization, DS; Spectral Space Transformation, SST and Slope/Bias correction, SBC), considering the RMSEP and the accuracy profile as assessment criteria. The transfer methods showed good capabilities to maintain the predictive performances comparable to that of the global modelling approach, except for a remaining slight bias. This approach is interesting since very few standardization samples are required to develop an adequate transfer model. GM, SST and SBC were able to correct/handle drifts in the spectral responses of different handheld instruments and thus may help to avoid the need for a long, laborious, and costly full recalibration process due to inter-instrument variations.

Composition analysis of falsified chloroquine phosphate samples seized during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The proliferation of falsified medicines can cause serious public health issues, particularly in the context of a global pandemic such as the actual COVID-19 pandemic. Our study involved eight chloroquine phosphate medicines seized in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Niger during March and May 2020. These suspect samples were first analyzed in a screening phase using field tools such as handheld Raman spectroscopy (TruScan) and then in a confirmation phase using laboratory tools such as hyperspectral Raman imaging and High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The results confirmed the falsified nature of the samples, highlighting the presence of metronidazole at low dose in four samples (16.6, 15.2, 15.2 and 14.5 mg/tab), too low levels of chloroquine in two samples (2.4 and 20.2 mg/tab), and substitution of chloroquine phosphate by paracetamol in one sample (255.7 mg/tab). The results also confirmed that four samples had been adulterated with paracetamol in trace amounts and two of them presented traces of chloramphenicol.

Quantitation of active pharmaceutical ingredient through the packaging using Raman handheld spectrophotometers: A comparison study.

Handheld Raman spectroscopy is actually booming. Recent devices improvements aim at addressing the usual Raman spectroscopy issues: fluorescence with shifted-excitation Raman difference spectroscopy (SERDS), poor sensitivity with surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and information only about the sample surface with spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS). While qualitative performances of handheld devices are generally well established, the quantitative analysis of pharmaceutical samples remains challenging. The aim of this study was to compare the quantitative performances of three commercially available handheld Raman spectroscopy devices. Two of them (TruScan and IDRaman mini) are equipped with a 785 nm laser wavelength and operate in a conventional backscattering mode. The IDRaman has the Orbital Raster Scanning (ORS) option to increase the analyzed surface. The third device (Resolve) operates with an 830 nm laser wavelength both in backscattering and in SORS modes. The comparative study was carried out on ibuprofen-mannitol-microcrystalline cellulose ternary mixtures. The concentration of ibuprofen ranged from 24 to 52% (w/w) while the proportions of the two excipients were varied to avoid cross-correlation as much as possible. Analyses were performed either directly through a glass vial or with the glass vial in an opaque polypropylene flask, using a validated FT-NIR spectroscopy method as a reference method. Chemometric analyses were carried out with the Partial Least Squares Regression (PLS-R) algorithm. The quantitative models were validated using the total error approach and the ICH Q2 (R1) guidelines with ±â€¯15% as acceptance limits.

Comparing the qualitative performances of handheld NIR and Raman spectrophotometers for the detection of falsified pharmaceutical products.

Over the last decade, the growth of the global pharmaceutical market has led to an overall increase of substandard and falsified drugs especially on the African market (or emerging countries). Recently, several methods using handheld/portable vibrational spectroscopy have been developed for rapid and on-field drug analysis. The objective of this work was to evaluate the performances of various NIR and Raman handheld spectrophotometers in specific brand identification of medicines through their primary packaging. Three groups of drug samples (artemether-lumefantrine, paracetamol and ibuprofen) were used in tablet or capsule forms. In order to perform a critical comparison, the analytical performances of the two analytical systems were compared statistically using three methods: hierarchical clustering algorithm (HCA), data-driven soft independent modelling of class analogy (DD-SIMCA) and hit quality index (HQI). The overall results show good detection abilities for NIR systems compared to Raman systems based on Matthews's correlation coefficients, generally close to one. Raman systems are less sensitive to the physical state of the samples than the NIR systems, it also suffers of the auto-fluorescence phenomenon and the signal of highly dosed active pharmaceutical ingredient (e.g. paracetamol or lumefantrine) may mask the signal of low-dosed and weaker Raman active compounds (e.g. artemether). Hence, Raman systems are less effective for specific product identification purposes but are interesting in the context of falsification because they allow a visual interpretation of the spectral signature (presence or absence of API).

Is supercritical fluid chromatography hyphenated to mass spectrometry suitable for the quality control of vitamin D3 oily formulations?

Nowadays, many efforts are devoted to improve analytical methods regarding efficiency, analysis time and greenness. In this context, Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC) is often regarded as a good alternative over Normal Phase Liquid Chromatography (NPLC). Indeed, modern SFC separations are fast, efficient with suitable quantitative performances. Moreover, the hyphenation of SFC to mass spectrometry (MS) provides additional gains in specificity and sensitivity. The present work aims at the determination of vitamin D3 by SFC-MS for routine Quality Control (QC) of medicines specifically. Based on the chromatographic parameters previously defined in SFC-UV by Design of Experiments (DoE) and Design Space methodology, the method was adapted to work under isopycnic conditions ensuring a baseline separation of the compounds. Afterwards, the response provided by the MS detector was optimized by means of DoE methodology associated to desirability functions. Using these optimal MS parameters, quantitative performances of the SFC-MS method were challenged by means of total error approach method validation. The resulting accuracy profile demonstrated the full validity of the SFC-MS method. It was indeed possible to meet the specification established by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) (i.e. 95.0 - 105.0% of the API content) for a dosing range corresponding to at least 70.0-130.0% of the API content. These results highlight the possibility to use SFC-MS for the QC of medicine and obviously support the switch to greener analytical methods.

Optimization and validation of a fast supercritical fluid chromatography method for the quantitative determination of vitamin D3 and its related impurities.

In the uprising context of green analytical chemistry, Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC) is often suggested as an alternative to Normal Phase Liquid Chromatography. Indeed, SFC provides fast, efficient and green separations. In this report, the quantitative performances of SFC were challenged on a real-life case study: the Quality Control (QC) of vitamin D3. A rapid and green SFC method was optimized thanks to the Design of Experiments-Design Space (DoE-DS) methodology. It provided robust and high quality separation of the compounds within a 2min timeframe, using a gradient of ethanol as co-solvent of the carbon dioxide. The analytical method was fully validated according to the total error approach, demonstrating the compliance of the method to the specifications of U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP: 97.0-103.0%) and European Pharmacopeia (EP: 97.0-102.0%) for an interval of [50-150%] of the target concentration. In order to allow quantification of impurities using vitamin D3 as an external standard in SFC-UV, correction factors were determined and verified during method validation. Thus, accurate quantification of impurities was demonstrated at the specified levels (0.1 and 1.0% of the main compound) for a 70.0-130.0% dosing range. This work demonstrates the validity of an SFC method for the QC of vitamin D3 raw material and its application to real samples. Therefore, it supports the switch to a greener and faster separative technique as an alternative to NPLC in the pharmaceutical industry.

Fingerprinting and validation of a LC-DAD method for the analysis of biflavanones in Garcinia kola-based antimalarial improved traditional medicines.

African populations use traditional medicines in their initial attempt to treat a range of diseases. Nevertheless, accurate knowledge of the composition of these drugs remains a challenge in terms of ensuring the health of population and in order to advance towards improved traditional medicines (ITMs). In this paper chromatographic methods were developed for qualitative and quantitative analyses of a per os antimalarial ITM containing Garcinia kola. The identified analytical markers were used to establish TLC and HPLC fingerprints. G. kola seeds were analysed by HPLC to confirm the identity of the extract used by the Congolese manufacturer in the ITM. The main compounds (GB1, GB2, GB-1a and Kolaflavanone) were isolated by preparative TLC and identified by UPLC-MS and NMR. For the quantification of the major compound GB1, a simple and rapid experimental design was applied to develop an LC method, and then its validation was demonstrated using the total error strategy with the accuracy profile as a decision tool. The accurate results were observed within 0.14-0.45mg/mL range of GB1 expressed as naringenin. The extracts used in several batches of the analysed oral solutions contained GB1 (expressed as naringenin) within 2.04-2.43%. Both the fingerprints and the validated LC-DAD were found suitable for the quality control of G. kola-based raw material and finished products, respectively.

Development, validation and comparison of NIR and Raman methods for the identification and assay of poor-quality oral quinine drops.

Poor quality antimalarial drugs are one of the public's major health problems in Africa. The depth of this problem may be explained in part by the lack of effective enforcement and the lack of efficient local drug analysis laboratories. To tackle part of this issue, two spectroscopic methods with the ability to detect and to quantify quinine dihydrochloride in children's oral drops formulations were developed and validated. Raman and near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy were selected for the drug analysis due to their low cost, non-destructive and rapid characteristics. Both of the methods developed were successfully validated using the total error approach in the range of 50-150% of the target concentration (20%W/V) within the 10% acceptance limits. Samples collected on the Congolese pharmaceutical market were analyzed by both techniques to detect potentially substandard drugs. After a comparison of the analytical performance of both methods, it has been decided to implement the method based on NIR spectroscopy to perform the routine analysis of quinine oral drop samples in the Quality Control Laboratory of Drugs at the University of Kinshasa (DRC).

Application of an innovative design space optimization strategy to the development of LC methods for the simultaneous screening of antibiotics to combat poor quality medicines.

The poor quality of medicines is a crucial problem of public health. Therefore, it is important to have analytical tools to attend decisions of the legal authorities while combating this offense. In this context, the main objective of this study was to develop generic methods able to trace, screen and determine several antibiotics and common associated molecules by mean of liquid chromatographic techniques. For that purpose, an innovative Design Space optimization strategy was applied, targeting 16 antibiotics and 3 beta-lactamase inhibitors. The robustness of the developed method allowed using its use in an environment where operational factors such as temperature are not easy to control and eased its transfer to Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography. To demonstrate its ability to quantify the targeted molecules, the developed and transferred method was fully validated for two active ingredients commonly used in association, sulbactam and ceftriaxone, using the accuracy profile as decision tool. Based on this successful step, the method was then used for the quantitative determination of these two active ingredients in three pharmaceutical brands marketed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Two out of the three pharmaceutical products did not comply with the specifications.

Usefulness of information criteria for the selection of calibration curves.

The reliability of analytical results obtained with quantitative analytical methods is highly dependent on the selection of the adequate model used as the calibration curve. To select the adequate response function or model the most used and known parameter is to determine the coefficient R(2). However, it is well-known that it suffers many inconveniences, such as leading to overfitting the data. A proposed solution is to use the adjusted determination coefficient R(adj)(2) that aims at reducing this problem. However, there is another family of criteria that exists to allow the selection of an adequate model: the information criteria AIC, AICc, and BIC. These criteria have rarely been used in analytical chemistry to select the adequate calibration curve. This works aims at assessing the performance of the statistical information criteria as well as R(2) and R(adj)(2) for the selection of an adequate calibration curve. They are applied to several analytical methods covering liquid chromatographic methods, as well as electrophoretic ones involved in the analysis of active substances in biological fluids or aimed at quantifying impurities in drug substances. In addition, Monte Carlo simulations are performed to assess the efficacy of these statistical criteria to select the adequate calibration curve.

Methodology for the validation of analytical methods involved in uniformity of dosage units tests.

Validation of analytical methods is required prior to their routine use. In addition, the current implementation of the Quality by Design (QbD) framework in the pharmaceutical industries aims at improving the quality of the end products starting from its early design stage. However, no regulatory guideline or none of the published methodologies to assess method validation propose decision methodologies that effectively take into account the final purpose of developed analytical methods. In this work a solution is proposed for the specific case of validating analytical methods involved in the assessment of the content uniformity or uniformity of dosage units of a batch of pharmaceutical drug products as proposed in the European or US pharmacopoeias. This methodology uses statistical tolerance intervals as decision tools. Moreover it adequately defines the Analytical Target Profile of analytical methods in order to obtain analytical methods that allow to make correct decisions about Content uniformity or uniformity of dosage units with high probability. The applicability of the proposed methodology is further illustrated using an HPLC-UV assay as well as a near infra-red spectrophotometric method.

Reply to the responses on the comments on "Uncertainty profiles for the validation of analytical methods" by Saffaj and Ihssane.

Saffaj and Ihssane, recently proposed an uncertainty profile for evaluating the validity of analytical methods using the statistical methodology of γ-confidence ß-content tolerance intervals. This profile assesses the validity of the method by comparing the method measurement uncertainty to a predefined acceptance limit stating the maximum uncertainty suitable for the method under study. In this letter we comment on the response (T. Saffaj, B. Ihssane, Talanta 94 (2012) 361-362) these authors have made to our previous letter (E. Rozet, E. Ziemons, R.D. Marini, B. Boulanger, Ph. Hubert, Talanta 88 (2012) 769-771). In particular, we demonstrate that ß-expectation tolerance intervals are prediction intervals, we show that ß-expectation tolerance intervals are highly useful for assessing analytical methods validation and for estimating measurement uncertainty and finally we show what are the differences and implications for these two topics (validation and uncertainty) when using either the methodology of ß-expectation tolerance intervals or the γ-confidence ß-content tolerance tolerance interval one.

Application of an innovative design space optimization strategy to the development of liquid chromatographic methods to combat potentially counterfeit nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

In the context of the battle against counterfeit medicines, an innovative methodology has been used to develop rapid and specific high performance liquid chromatographic methods to detect and determine 18 non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, 5 pharmaceutical conservatives, paracetamol, chlorzoxazone, caffeine and salicylic acid. These molecules are commonly encountered alone or in combination on the market. Regrettably, a significant proportion of these consumed medicines are counterfeit or substandard, with a strong negative impact in countries of Central Africa. In this context, an innovative design space optimization strategy was successfully applied to the development of LC screening methods allowing the detection of substandard or counterfeit medicines. Using the results of a unique experimental design, the design spaces of 5 potentially relevant HPLC methods have been developed, and transferred to an ultra high performance liquid chromatographic system to evaluate the robustness of the predicted DS while providing rapid methods of analysis. Moreover, one of the methods has been fully validated using the accuracy profile as decision tool, and was then used for the quantitative determination of three active ingredients and one impurity in a common and widely used pharmaceutical formulation. The method was applied to 5 pharmaceuticals sold in the Democratic Republic of Congo. None of these pharmaceuticals was found compliant to the European Medicines Agency specifications.

Validation of analytical methods involved in dissolution assays: acceptance limits and decision methodologies.

Dissolution tests are key elements to ensure continuing product quality and performance. The ultimate goal of these tests is to assure consistent product quality within a defined set of specification criteria. Validation of an analytical method aimed at assessing the dissolution profile of products or at verifying pharmacopoeias compliance should demonstrate that this analytical method is able to correctly declare two dissolution profiles as similar or drug products as compliant with respect to their specifications. It is essential to ensure that these analytical methods are fit for their purpose. Method validation is aimed at providing this guarantee. However, even in the ICHQ2 guideline there is no information explaining how to decide whether the method under validation is valid for its final purpose or not. Are the entire validation criterion needed to ensure that a Quality Control (QC) analytical method for dissolution test is valid? What acceptance limits should be set on these criteria? How to decide about method's validity? These are the questions that this work aims at answering. Focus is made to comply with the current implementation of the Quality by Design (QbD) principles in the pharmaceutical industry in order to allow to correctly defining the Analytical Target Profile (ATP) of analytical methods involved in dissolution tests. Analytical method validation is then the natural demonstration that the developed methods are fit for their intended purpose and is not any more the inconsiderate checklist validation approach still generally performed to complete the filing required to obtain product marketing authorization.

Quality by design compliant analytical method validation.

The concept of quality by design (QbD) has recently been adopted for the development of pharmaceutical processes to ensure a predefined product quality. Focus on applying the QbD concept to analytical methods has increased as it is fully integrated within pharmaceutical processes and especially in the process control strategy. In addition, there is the need to switch from the traditional checklist implementation of method validation requirements to a method validation approach that should provide a high level of assurance of method reliability in order to adequately measure the critical quality attributes (CQAs) of the drug product. The intended purpose of analytical methods is directly related to the final decision that will be made with the results generated by these methods under study. The final aim for quantitative impurity assays is to correctly declare a substance or a product as compliant with respect to the corresponding product specifications. For content assays, the aim is similar: making the correct decision about product compliance with respect to their specification limits. It is for these reasons that the fitness of these methods should be defined, as they are key elements of the analytical target profile (ATP). Therefore, validation criteria, corresponding acceptance limits, and method validation decision approaches should be settled in accordance with the final use of these analytical procedures. This work proposes a general methodology to achieve this in order to align method validation within the QbD framework and philosophy. ß-Expectation tolerance intervals are implemented to decide about the validity of analytical methods. The proposed methodology is also applied to the validation of analytical procedures dedicated to the quantification of impurities or active product ingredients (API) in drug substances or drug products, and its applicability is illustrated with two case studies.

Models to estimate overall analytical measurements uncertainty: assumptions, comparisons and applications.

Evaluation of analytical results reliability is of core importance as crucial decisions are taken with them. From the various methodologies to evaluate the fitness of purpose of analytical methods, overall measurement uncertainty estimation is more and more applied. Overall measurement uncertainty allows to combine simultaneously the remaining systematic influences to the random sources of uncertainty and allows assessing the reliability of results generated by analytical methods. However there are various interpretations on how to estimate overall measurement uncertainty, and thus various models for estimating it. Each model together with its assumptions has great impacts on the risks to abusively declare that analytical methods are suitable for their intended purpose. This review paper aims at (i) summarizing the various models used to estimate overall measurement uncertainty, (ii) provide their pros and cons, (iii) review the main areas of application and (iv) as a conclusion provide some recommendations when evaluating overall measurement uncertainty.

Innovative high-performance liquid chromatography method development for the screening of 19 antimalarial drugs based on a generic approach, using design of experiments, independent component analysis and design space.

An innovative methodology based on design of experiments (DoE), independent component analysis (ICA) and design space (DS) was developed in previous works and was tested out with a mixture of 19 antimalarial drugs. This global LC method development methodology (i.e. DoE-ICA-DS) was used to optimize the separation of 19 antimalarial drugs to obtain a screening method. DoE-ICA-DS methodology is fully compliant with the current trend of quality by design. DoE was used to define the set of experiments to model the retention times at the beginning, the apex and the end of each peak. Furthermore, ICA was used to numerically separate coeluting peaks and estimate their unbiased retention times. Gradient time, temperature and pH were selected as the factors of a full factorial design. These retention times were modelled by stepwise multiple linear regressions. A recently introduced critical quality attribute, namely the separation criterion (S), was also used to assess the quality of separations rather than using the resolution. Furthermore, the resulting mathematical models were also studied from a chromatographic point of view to understand and investigate the chromatographic behaviour of each compound. Good adequacies were found between the mathematical models and the expected chromatographic behaviours predicted by chromatographic theory. Finally, focusing at quality risk management, the DS was computed as the multidimensional subspace where the probability for the separation criterion to lie in acceptance limits was higher than a defined quality level. The DS was computed propagating the prediction error from the modelled responses to the quality criterion using Monte Carlo simulations. DoE-ICA-DS allowed encountering optimal operating conditions to obtain a robust screening method for the 19 considered antimalarial drugs in the framework of the fight against counterfeit medicines. Moreover and only on the basis of the same data set, a dedicated method for the determination of three antimalarial compounds in a pharmaceutical formulation was optimized to demonstrate both the efficiency and flexibility of the methodology proposed in the present study.

Advances in validation, risk and uncertainty assessment of bioanalytical methods.

Bioanalytical method validation is a mandatory step to evaluate the ability of developed methods to provide accurate results for their routine application in order to trust the critical decisions that will be made with them. Even if several guidelines exist to help perform bioanalytical method validations, there is still the need to clarify the meaning and interpretation of bioanalytical method validation criteria and methodology. Yet, different interpretations can be made of the validation guidelines as well as for the definitions of the validation criteria. This will lead to diverse experimental designs implemented to try fulfilling these criteria. Finally, different decision methodologies can also be interpreted from these guidelines. Therefore, the risk that a validated bioanalytical method may be unfit for its future purpose will depend on analysts personal interpretation of these guidelines. The objective of this review is thus to discuss and highlight several essential aspects of methods validation, not only restricted to chromatographic ones but also to ligand binding assays owing to their increasing role in biopharmaceutical industries. The points that will be reviewed are the common validation criteria, which are selectivity, standard curve, trueness, precision, accuracy, limits of quantification and range, dilutional integrity and analyte stability. Definitions, methodology, experimental design and decision criteria are reviewed. Two other points closely connected to method validation are also examined: incurred sample reproducibility testing and measurement uncertainty as they are highly linked to bioanalytical results reliability. Their additional implementation is foreseen to strongly reduce the risk of having validated a bioanalytical method unfit for its purpose.

Reliable low-cost capillary electrophoresis device for drug quality control and counterfeit medicines.

The proportion of counterfeit medicines is dramatically increasing these last few years. According to numerous official sources, in some pharmaceutical wholesalers in African countries, the proportion has reached 80%. Unfortunately, this situation is far to be improved due to lack of suitable analytical equipment allowing rapid actions of the Regulatory Agencies based on scientific consideration, at affordable cost and all over the drug supply chain. For that purpose, a network group considered that mater by building a low-cost original capillary electrophoresis (CE) equipment equipped with a new deep UV detector based on LED technology. The generic conditions for analysis were investigated: capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) performed at acidic pH for basic drug molecules (i.e., quinine, highly used as the last antimalarial rampart), basic pH for compounds such as furosemide (a common diuretic drug) and at neutral pH for a well known antibiotic combination, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazol. To evaluate the ability of the CE equipment for quantification, a full validation and a method comparison study were carried out for the CZE method dedicated to quinine determination. The validation involved the use of accuracy profile and total error concept to monitor the adequacy of the results obtained by the new prototype. The method comparison was based on the Bland and Altman approach by comparing results obtained by the low-cost CE and a conventional set-up. Subsequent validation studies were realized with neutral and acidic drug molecules, each focusing on a single concentration level calibration curve in order to maintain as low as possible the expenses due to reagents and thus the cost of analysis, as important advantages of CE for drug quality control.