Stability Indicating LC Method for Deferasirox in Bulk Drugs and Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms

A novel, sensitive, stability indicating RP-LC method has been developed for the quantitative determination of deferasirox, its related impurities in both bulk drugs and pharmaceutical dosage forms. Efficient chromatographic separation was achieved on a C18 stationary phase with simple mobile phase combination delivered in an isocratic mode and quantitation was by ultraviolet detection at 245 nm. The mobile phase consisted of buffer, acetonitrile and methanol (50:45:5, v/v) delivered at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min⁻¹. Buffer consisted of 10 mM potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate monohydrate, pH adjusted to 3.0 by using orthophosphoric acid. In the developed LC method the resolution (R s ) between deferasirox and its four potential impurities was found to be greater than 2.0. Regression analysis showed an r value (correlation coefficient) greater than 0.999 for deferasirox and its four impurities. This method was capable to detect all four impurities of deferasirox at a level of 0.002% with respect to test concentration of 0.5 mg mL⁻¹ for a 10 μL injection volume. The inter- and intra-day precision values for all four impurities and for deferasirox was found to be within 2.0% RSD. The method showed good and consistent recoveries for deferasirox in bulk drugs (98.3-101.1%), pharmaceutical dosage forms (100.2-103.1%) and for its all the four impurities (99.7-102.1%). The test solution was found to be stable in methanol for 48 h. The drug was subjected to stress conditions of hydrolysis, oxidation, photolysis and thermal degradation. Considerable degradation was found to occur in acid stress hydrolysis. The stress samples were assayed against a qualified reference standard and the mass balance was found close to 99.95%. The developed RP-LC method was validated with respect to linearity, accuracy, precision and robustness.