Development and Validation of the Chiral Liquid Chromatography Method for Separation of Enantiomeric Impurity in Novel Oxazolidinone Antibacterial Agent WCK 4086

Abstract A highly stereo-specific liquid chromatographic method was developed and validated for the quantification of enantiomeric impurity (R-enantiomer) in novel oxazolidinone antibacterial agent (WCK 4086), a drug substance. The separation was achieved on Chiralpak AD-H (amylose-based chiral stationary phase) using a mobile phase consisting of n-hexane:2-propanol:methanol:trifluoroacetic acid (80:10:10:0.4, v/v/v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min−1. Chromatographic resolution between two enantiomers was found to be more than 2.0. Method was extensively validated for the quantification of R-enantiomer in WCK 4086 and proved to be robust. Method was found to be highly specific as all other related impurities were separated from the enantiomers. The calibration curve for R-enantiomer showed an excellent linearity over the concentration range of 1-5 μg mL−1. Limit of quantitation (LOQ) and limit of detection (LOD) for R-enantiomer were 0.009 μg and 0.003 μg, respectively. Average recovery of the R-enantiomer was in the range of 94.55-109.67%. Analytical solutions were found to be stable up to 70 h at room temperature. Developed method was found to be specific, sensitive, precise and accurate for quantitative determination of R-enantiomer in WCK 4086 and useful for controlling the enantiomeric impurity in drug substance used for preclinical studies.