Predictive strategy for the rapid structure elucidation of drug degradants

Structural information on drug degradants and impurities can serve to accelerate the drug discovery and development cycle. Traditional structure elucidation methodologies for obtaining this information are often slow and resource-consuming; therefore, LC/MS profiling and LC/MS/MS substructural analysis methodologies have been developed to rapidly and accurately elucidate structures of impurities and degradants. This work is a further development of methodologies used for the elucidation of degradation products of paclitaxel [K.J. Volk et al., Proc. 9th AAPS Ann. Meeting, 1994, p. 29]. In this study cefadroxil was used as a model compound for the evaluation of a predictive strategy for the production and elucidation of impurities and degradants induced by acid, base, and heat, using LC/MS and LC/MS/MS profiling methodology, resulting in an LC/MS degradant database which includes information on molecular structures, chromatographic behavior, molecular weight, UV data, and MS/MS substructural information. Furthermore, libraries such as this can provide a predictive foundation for pre-clinical development work involving drug stability, synthesis, and monitoring.