Development and Validation of a New Stability-Indicating RP-UPLC Method for the Quantitative Determination of Bromfenac Sodium and Its Impurities in an Ophthalmic Dosage Form

A new rapid stability-indicating reversed-phase UPLC method was developed and validated for the determination of Bromfenac sodium and its impurities in Bromfenac ophthalmic solution. During literature search, only a few publications were found about Bromfenac sodium. There is no official monograph in the pharmacopoeias about Bromfenac sodium. Chromatographic separation has been achieved on a polar-embedded Waters Acquity BEH Shield RP18 (100 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm) column under gradient elution by using a binary mixture of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (0.01 M, pH 3.3) and acetonitrile (ACN) at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min. Chromatogram was monitored at 265 nm using a photodiode array detector (PDA). The drug and its related impurities are eluted within 13 min. Resolution of Bromfenac sodium and all eight potential impurities have been achieved greater than 4.0 for all pairs of compounds. To prove the stability-indicating power of the method, the drug was subjected to hydrolytic (acid, alkaline and water), oxidative, photolytic and thermal stress, and the major degradation products were identified based on LC–MS analysis. The developed method was validated as per ICH guidelines with respect to specificity, linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantification, precision, accuracy and robustness.