Development and validation of liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry methods for the determination of gentamicin, lincomycin, and spectinomycin in the presence of their impurities in pharmaceutical formulations

Liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) methods for the determination of gentamicin, lincomycin and spectinomycin in the presence of their impurities were developed and tested. Chromatographic separations were achieved using gradient elution on a C18 column. All components were ionized by positive-ion electrospray and detected by multi reaction monitoring (MRM) with an LC-tandem mass spectrometer. Calibration curves were linear with correlation coefficients better than 0.99. The developed method for the determination of gentamicin provides complete base line separation of components C1, C1a, C2, C2a and C2b mentioned in the European and British Pharmacopoeias. The second developed method makes possible a simultaneous analysis of the active compounds of both lincomycin and spectinomycin. Additionally, all impurities defined in the pharmacopoeias for all three active components were determined and their identities confirmed. The methods were tested in routine quality control analysis.