UPLC and LC-MS studies on degradation behavior of irinotecan hydrochloride and development of a validated stability-indicating ultra-performance liquid chromatographic method for determination of irinotecan hydrochloride and its impurities in pharmaceutical dosage forms

The objective of the current investigation was to study the degradation behavior of irinotecan hydrochloride under different International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) recommended stress conditions using ultra-performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and to establish a validated stability-indicating reverse-phase ultra-performance liquid chromatographic method for the quantitative determination of irinotecan hydrochloride and its seven impurities and degradation products in pharmaceutical dosage forms. Irinotecan hydrochloride was subjected to the stress conditions of oxidative, acid, base, hydrolytic, thermal and photolytic degradation. Irinotecan hydrochloride was found to degrade significantly in oxidative and base hydrolysis and photolytic degradation conditions. The degradation products were well resolved from the main peak and its impurities, thus proving the stability-indicating power of the method. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a Waters Acquity BEH C8 (100 × 2.1 mm) 1.7-µm column with a mobile phase containing a gradient mixture of solvent A (0.02M KH(2)PO(4) buffer, pH 3.4) and solvent B (a mixture of acetonitrile and methanol in the ratio of 62:38 v/v). The mobile phase was delivered at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min with ultraviolet detection at 220 nm. The run time was 8 min, within which irinotecan and its seven impurities and degradation products were satisfactorily separated. The developed method was validated as per ICH guidelines with respect to specificity, linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantification, accuracy, precision and robustness. This method was also suitable for the assay determination of irinotecan hydrochloride in pharmaceutical dosage forms.