LC and LC-MS/MS Studies for Identification and Characterisation of Related Substances and Degradation Products of Abrocitinib

Abstract

In the pharmaceutical industry, Related Substances (RCs), impurities or Degradation Products (DPs) are associated with the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) in the final drug product. These compounds must be within permissible limits for safe therapeutic use for consumers. Hence there is a need to quantify these compounds using an appropriate analytical method. No method is reported in the literature for quantification of these compounds in abrocitinib which is a medical drug prescribed to treat severe atopic dermatitis in adults. This study includes the optimisation of stability indicating the HPLC method for resolution and subsequent quantification of abrocitinib RCs and structural characterisation of stressinduced DPs of abrocitinib. The method was optimised by varying mobile phase solvents, pH, flow rate and wavelength of the detector. The finalised conditions were validated and applied for the resolution and evaluation of stress-induced DPs. The stress was induced in abrocitinib pure drug HCl (0.1M), NaOH (0.1M), hydrogen peroxide (3%), 80°C in an air oven and 254nm in a UV chamber. The generated DPs were structurally characterised with the LCMS experiment. Abrocitinib and DPs along with known RCs were resolved on ACE Ultra Core Super C18 250mm column using 0.9mL/min gradient flow of methanol (Solvent A), acetonitrile and buffer (Solvent B). The resolved compounds were detected through a UV detector at 295nm and a mass detector at NMR positive mode. The method identifies 5.85min, 3.13min, 6.60min and 4.38min respectively for abrocitinib, related compounds 1 to 3 respectively with acceptable system suitability. A very high correlate (< 0.999) linear graph was achieved within 5 to 30 μg/mL concentration level for abrocitinib and 0.05 to 0.3μg/ mL for related compounds. Three DPs with molecular mass and formula of C₁₀H₁₃N₅ (203.2 g/mol), C₁₁H₁₄N₄ (202.2 g/mol) and C₁₃H₁₉N₅O₂S (309.3 g/mol) in acid-induced stress study and two DPs of C₁₂H₂₁N₅O₂S (299.3 g/mol) and C₁₁H₁₉N₅O₂S (285.3 g/mol) in peroxide-induced stress study and one DP of C₁₀H₁₄N₄ (190.2 g/mol) in base induced stress study were successfully characterised. The method proposed in this study can effectively resolve unknown degradation products, and known related compounds along with abrocitinib and is hence applicable for quality control analysis of abrocitinib.