Stability-indicating UPLC method for determination of Imatinib Mesylate and their degradation products in active pharmaceutical ingredient and pharmaceutical dosage forms

A simple, precise, accurate stability-indicating gradient reverse phase ultra-performance liquid chromatographic (RP-UPLC) method was developed for quantitative determination of purity of Imatinib Mesylate (IMM) drug substance and drug products in the presence of its process related impurities, and degradation products. The proposed RP-UPLC method utilizes Acquity UPLC BEH 50-mm, 2.1 mm and 1.7 μm C-18 column at 30 °C, with a gradient program of 9.0 min at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. The compounds of interest were monitored at 237 nm. Resolution for Imatinib and eight related components was found to be greater than 1.5 for any pair of components. The correlation coefficients (r2 > 0.9990) obtained indicate clear correlations between the concentrations and their peak areas for the investigated compounds. RSD obtained for the repeatability and intermediate precision experiments, was less than 5.0%. Accuracy of the method was further ascertained by performing recovery studies through spiking experiments. The drug substance was subjected to hydrolytic, oxidative, photolytic and thermal stress conditions as per ICH. The developed method was validated according to the current ICH guidelines for specificity, limit of detection, limit of quantitation, linearity, accuracy, precision, ruggedness and robustness. The method is also suitable for the assay determination of IMM in pharmaceutical dosage forms.