Impurity profiling is the common name of a group of analytical activities, the aim of which is the detection, identification/structure elucidation and quantitative determination of organic and inorganic impurities, as well as residual solvents in bulk drugs and pharmaceutical formulations. Since this is the best way to characterise the quality and stability of bulk drugs and pharmaceutical formulations, this is the core activity in modern drug analysis.Due to the very rapid development of the analytical methodologies available for this purpose and the similarly rapid increase of the demands as regards the purity of drugs it is an important task to give a summary of the problems and the various possibilities offered by modern analytical chemistry for their solution. That is the aim of this book.The book is methodology-oriented. In the first chapter some important aspects of the background of impurity-related analytical studies (toxicological, pharmacopoeial aspects, the characterisation of the sources of impurities and the role of impurity profiling in various fields of drug research, production and therapeutic use) are summarised. Chapter two deals with related organic impurities, the strategies for impurity profiling, the use of chromatographic and related separation methods, spectroscopic, and hyphenated techniques. The subject of the third chapter is the identification and determination of residual solvents. The determination of inorganic impurities is discussed in chapter four. The special problems of degradation products as impurities are dealt with in chapter five. A separate chapter has been compiled to deal with one of the most up-to-date problems in contemporary pharmaceutical analysis, the estimation of enantiomeric purity of chiral drugs. Chapter seven is devoted to various approaches to solve the problem of polymorphic modifications as impurities. Since in the broader sense of the word the microbiological purity of drugs and drug products also belongs to this circle, the most important information from this field is summarised in chapter eight. After the mainly methodology-oriented chapters, the final one concentrates on four groups of drugs (peptides, biotechnological products, antibiotics and steroids) in order to demonstrate the use of the methods described earlier.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulatory bodies around the world require that impurities in drug substance and drug product levels recommended by the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) be isolated and characterized. Identifying process-related impurities and degradation products also helps us to understand the production of impurities and assists in defining degradation mechanisms. When this process is performed at an early stage, there is ample time to address various aspects of drug development to prevent or control the production of impurities and degradation products well before the regulatory filing and thus assure production of a high-quality drug product. This book, therefore, has been designed to meet the need for a reference text on the complex process of isolation and characterization of process-related (synthesis and formulation) impurities and degradation products to meet critical requlatory requirements. It's objective is to provide guidance on isolating and characterizing impurities of pharmaceuticals such as drug candidates, drug substances, and drug products. The book outlines impurity identification processes and will be a key resource document for impurity analysis, isolation/synthesis, and characterization. - Provides valuable information on isolation and characterization of impurities. - Gives a regulatory perspective on the subject. - Describes various considerations involved in meeting regulatory requirements. - Discusses various sources of impurities and degredation products.

Quality management (QM) practices are the basis for the successful implementation and maintenance of any QM system. Quality control (QC) is identified as a QM component. Therefore, QM effectiveness is dependent on the QC strategy. QC practice is more or less complex depending on the type of production. The book is focused on new trends and developments in QM and QC in several types of industries from a worldwide perspective. Its content has been organized into two sections and seven chapters written by well-recognized researchers worldwide. Several approaches are debated based on sample traceability, analytical method validation, required parameters, class of exponential regression-type estimators of the population means, determination of impurities, viewpoints, and case studies.

This book examines genotoxic impurities and their impact on the pharmaceutical industry. Specific sections examine this from both a toxicological and analytical perspective. Within these sections, the book defines appropriate strategies to both assess and ultimately control genotoxic impurities, thus aiding the reader to develop effective control measures. An opening section covers the development of guidelines and the threshold of toxicological concern (TTC) and is followed by a section on safety aspects, including safety tests in vivo and vitro, and data interpretation. The second section addresses the risk posed by genotoxic impurities from outside sources and from mutagens within DNA. In the final section, the book deals with the quality perspective of genotoxic impurities focused on two critical aspects, the first being the analysis and the second how to practically evaluate the impurities.

The book highlights the current practices and future trends in structural characterization of impurities and degradants. It begins with an overview of mass spectrometry techniques as related to the analysis of impurities and degradants, followed by studies involving characterization of process related impurities (including potential genotoxic impurities), and excipient related impurities in formulated products. Both general practitioners in pharmaceutical research and specialists in analytical chemistry field will benefit from this book that will detail step-by-step approaches and new strategies to solve challenging problems related to pharmaceutical research.

The presence of impurities, particularly the API-related impurities, i.e., degradation-related impurities (DRIs) and interaction-related impurities (IRIs), may affect the quality, safety, and efficacy of drug products. Since the regulatory requirements and management strategies are required to be established and complied, sources of impurities shall be carefully classified prior to take subsequent steps such as development of analytical methods and acceptance criteria. Current international regulatory requirements for the management of impurities in pharmaceuticals were reviewed. Procedures for the identification of DPIs in pharmaceuticals, i.e., ethyl cysteinate dimer, (R)-N-methyl-3-(2-bromophenoxy)-3-phenylpropanamine, sestamibi, etc., using high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) were studied. Scheme for the establishment of analytical methods and acceptance criteria of process-related impurities (PRIs) and DRIs in accordance with the requirements of International Council for Harmonization (ICH) and algorithm to perform the identification of DPIs by using LC-MS/MS has been proposed. Practice of kinetic study to distinguish PRIs and DRIs, determination of the potential core fragments coupled with a predicted list of relevant transformations for conducting MS/MS scans, applications of stable isotope distribution patterns or natural abundances, practice of mass balance, etc., have been well demonstrated to justify the reliabilities of identification results.

Recent regulations on heavy metal testing have required the pharmaceutical industry to monitor a suite of elemental impurities in pharmaceutical raw materials, drug products and dietary supplements. These new directives s are described in the new United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Chapters , , and , together with Q3D, Step 4 guidelines for elemental impurities, drafted by the ICH (International Conference on Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use), a consortium of global pharmaceutical associations, including the European Pharmacopeia (Ph.Eur.), the Japanese Pharmacopeia (JP) and the USP. This book provides a complete guide to the analytical methodology, instrumental techniques and sample preparation procedures used for measuring elemental impurities in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical materials. It offers readers the tools to better understand plasma spectrochemistry to optimize detection capability for the full suite of elemental PDE (Permitted Daily Exposure) levels in the various drug delivery categories. Other relevant information covered in the book includes: The complete guide to measuring elemental impurities in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical materials. Covers heavy metals testing in the pharmaceutical industry from an historical perspective. Gives an overview of current USP Chapters and and ICH Q3D Step 4 Guidelines. Explains the purpose of validation protocols used in Chapter , including how J-values are calculated Describes fundamental principles and practical capabilities of ICP-MS and ICP-OES. Offers guidelines about the optimum strategy for risk assessment Provides tips on how best to prepare and present your data for regulatory inspection. An indispensable resource, the fundamental principles and practical benefits of ICP-OES and ICP-MS are covered in a reader-friendly format that a novice, who is carrying out elemental impurities testing in the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical communities, will find easy to understand.