Quantification of chondroitin sulfate and dermatan sulfate in danaparoid sodium by ¹H NMR spectroscopy and PLS regression

Danaparoid sodium (the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Orgaran; Merck Sharp and Dohme) is a biopolymeric non-heparin drug used as anticoagulant and antithrombotic agent approved for the prophylaxis of post-operative deep-vein thrombosis, which may lead to pulmonary embolism in patients undergoing, e.g., elective hip replacement surgery. It consists of a mixture of three glycosaminoglycans (GAGs): heparan sulfate (HS), dermatan sulfate (DS), and chondroitin sulfate (CS). Currently, the CS and DS content are quantified by means of a time-consuming enzymatic method. In this paper the use of ¹H NMR in combination with multivariate regression (partial least-squares, PLS) is proposed as a new method. In order to evaluate the proposed method, a series of danaparoid sodium samples were analyzed and the results were compared with those obtained by the enzymatic method (reference method). The results showed that the proposed ¹H NMR method is a good alternative for analysis of CS and DS in danaparoid sodium. Accuracy of ±0.7% (w/w) and ±1.1% (w/w) for CS and DS was obtained by the ¹H NMR method and accuracy of ±1.0% (w/w) and ±1.3% (w/w) by the enzymatic method. Furthermore, the use of ¹H NMR in combination with PLS results in a fast quantification. The analysis time is reduced to 35 min per sample instead of 60 h for a maximum of 16 samples.