Application of an innovative design space optimization strategy to thedevelopment of LC methods for the simultaneous screening of antibiotics to combat poor quality medicines

The poor quality of medicines is a crucial problem of public health. Therefore, it is important to haveanalytical tools to attend decisions of the legal authorities while combating this offense. In this context,the main objective of this study was to develop generic methods able to trace, screen and determineseveral antibiotics and common associated molecules by mean of liquid chromatographic techniques.For that purpose, an innovative Design Space optimization strategy was applied, targeting 16 antibioticsand 3 beta-lactamase inhibitors. The robustness of the developed method allowed using its use in anenvironment where operational factors such as temperature are not easy to control and eased its trans-fer to Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography. To demonstrate its ability to quantify the targetedmolecules, the developed and transferred method was fully validated for two active ingredients com-monly used in association, sulbactam and ceftriaxone, using the accuracy profile as decision tool. Basedon this successful step, the method was then used for the quantitative determination of these two activeingredients in three pharmaceutical brands marketed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Two out ofthe three pharmaceutical products did not comply with the specification

Development, validation and comparison of NIR and Raman methods for the identification and assay of poor-quality oral quinine drops.

Poor quality antimalarial drugs are one of the public’s major health problems in Africa. The depth of this problem may be explained in part by the lack of effective enforcement and the lack of efficient local drug analysis laboratories. To tackle part of this issue, two spectroscopic methods with the ability to detect and to quantify quinine dihydrochloride in children’s oral drops formulations were developed and validated. Raman and Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy were selected for the drug analysis due to their low cost, non-destructive and rapid characteristics. Both of the methods developed were successfully validated using the total error approach in the range of 50-150% of the target concentration (20% W/V) within the 10% acceptance limits. Samples collected on the Congolese pharmaceutical market were analyzed by both techniques to detect potentially substandard drugs. After a comparison of the analytical performance of both methods, it has been decided to implement the method based on NIR spectroscopy to perform the routine analysis of quinine oral drop samples in the Quality Control Laboratory of Drugs at the University of Kinshasa (DRC)

APPLICATION OF AN INNOVATIVE DESIGN SPACE OPTIMIZATION STRATEGY TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF LC METHODS TO COMBAT POTENTIALLY COUNTERFEIT NONSTEROIDAL ANTIINFLAMMATORY DRUGS

In the context of the battle against counterfeit medicines, an innovative methodology has been used to develop rapid and specific high performance liquid chromatographic methods to detect and determine 18 non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, 5 pharmaceutical conservatives, paracetamol, chlorzoxazone, caffeine and salicylic acid. These molecules are commonly encountered alone or in combination on the market. Regrettably, a significant proportion of these consumed medicines are counterfeit or substandard, with a strong negative impact in countries of Central Africa. In this context, an innovative design space optimization strategy was successfully applied to the development of LC screening methods allowing the detection of substandard or counterfeit medicines. Using the results of a unique experimental design, the design spaces of 5 potentially relevant HPLC methods have been developed, and transferred to an ultra high performance liquid chromatographic system to evaluate the robustness of the predicted DS while providing rapid methods of analysis. Moreover, one of the methods has been fully validated using the accuracy profile as decision tool, and was then used for the quantitative determination of three active ingredients and one impurity in a common and widely used pharmaceutical formulation. The method was applied to 5 pharmaceuticals sold in the Democratic Republic of Congo. None of these pharmaceuticals was found compliant to the European Medicines Agency specifications

UV Visible Spectrophotometric Determination of the Quality of Antiretroviral Drugs Distributed in Kinshasa

peer reviewedBackground: Antiretrovirals (ARVs) are the molecules used in the fight against infection by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Their main objective is to stop the virus from replicating and thus allow the immune system to recover. In 2001, the program to fight against HIV/AIDS United Nations (UNAIDS) and its partners has decided to strengthen the pharmaceutical channel and improve access to good quality care. Thus ARV quality control is recommended. Objective: The objective of this work was to monitor the quality of ARVs distributed in Kinshasa. Methodology: In this work, UV-visible spectrophotometry is used for the analysis of ARVs presented in simple form distributed in the city of Kinshasa. Results: The results of this work show that the stated and analyzed ARVs contain active ingredients; there is no placebo. Ten percent of these ARVs are non-compliant with regard to dosing of the active test. Conclusion: These results confirm the need to control these drugs to protect patients from adverse consequences related to their poor quality

Near infrared spectroscopy, a non-destructive technique to fight against counterfeit medicines

peer reviewedNear infrared spectroscopy is a very promising and expanding analytical technique. It has to be noted that this technique is becoming more used in the pharmaceutical field for the quality control of products. Indeed near infrared spectroscopy allows to perform fast, non-destructive, versatile analysis of the sample and minimization of the sample preparation. Based on those advantages, this spectroscopic method is one of the first reliable analytical techniques for fighting against counterfeit medicines.Projet Interuniversitaire Cibl

Innovative high-performance liquid chromatography method development for the screening of 19 antimalarial drugs based on a generic approach, using design of experiments, independent component analysis and design space

peer reviewedAn innovative methodology based on design of experiments (DoE), independent component analysis (ICA) and design space (DS) was developed in previous works and was tested out with a mixture of 19 antimalarial drugs. This global LC method development methodology (i.e. DoE–ICA–DS) was used to optimize the separation of 19 antimalarial drugs to obtain a screening method. DoE–ICA–DS methodology is fully compliant with the current trend of quality by design. DoE was used to define the set of experiments to model the retention times at the beginning, the apex and the end of each peak. Furthermore, ICA was used to numerically separate coeluting peaks and estimate their unbiased retention times. Gradient time, temperature and pH were selected as the factors of a full factorial design. These retention times were modelled by stepwise multiple linear regressions. A recently introduced critical quality attribute, namely the separation criterion (S), was also used to assess the quality of separations rather than using the resolution. Furthermore, the resulting mathematical models were also studied from a chromatographic point of view to understand and investigate the chromatographic behaviour of each compound. Good adequacies were found between the mathematical models and the expected chromatographic behaviours predicted by chromatographic theory. Finally, focusing at quality risk management, the DS was computed as the multidimensional subspace where the probability for the separation criterion to lie in acceptance limits was higher than a defined quality level. The DS was computed propagating the prediction error from the modelled responses to the quality criterion using Monte Carlo simulations. DoE–ICA–DS allowed encountering optimal operating conditions to obtain a robust screening method for the 19 considered antimalarial drugs in the framework of the fight against counterfeit medicines. Moreover and only on the basis of the same data set, a dedicated method for the determination of three antimalarial compounds in a pharmaceutical formulation was optimized to demonstrate both the efficiency and flexibility of the methodology proposed in the present study.Optimal-D