Near-infrared spectroscopic identification and quantification of active pharmaceutical ingredients in closed capsules: a feasibility study for pediatric doses

David L. Mainka and Andreas Link
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Abstract

Single-use solid oral dosage forms have to be compounded for pediatric patients due to a lack of pediatric-licensed formulations or for small scale studies. Low content uniformity of such dosage forms, especially capsules, is a cause of variation of e.g. steroid doses in children. Besides quantification, identification of active pharmaceutical ingredients in different hard-shell capsules using different excipients can play a role, especially when ensuring the blinding effectiveness of investigational medical products or when rapid unblinding in case of emergency is necessary. Non-destructive quality control of compounded closed hard shell capsules containing very low doses is therefore highly rewarding. The individual control of a whole batch of pediatric capsules intended to be administered is possible, due to near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) being a rapid and non-destructive technique. FT-NIR spectroscopy with investigational sample preparation and custom-designed, 3D-printed sample holders were used to examine the capsules. This method ensures the results to be reproducible. Different chemometric approaches, which use the Mahalanobis distance, were applied to the data. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) was used to achieve the quantification of the content of hydrocortisone acetate in the capsules. While the identification of captopril, hydrochlorothiazide, and sildenafil citrate mixed with various excipients in closed hard shell capsules could be achieved, non-destructive quantification of very low doses of main real-life example hydrocortisone acetate remains an issue.

Temperature dependent analysis of Octenidine (N,N´-(decane-1,10-diyldipyridin1-yl-4-ylidene)dioctan-1-amine) dihydrochloride by NMR and NIR spectroscopy

David L. Mainka, Jörg Schwarz and Ulrich Girreser 

Abstract

Octenidine dihydrochloride is one of the most common active pharmaceutical incredients with a disinfectant effect on superficial wounds. In this paper we describe the mesomeric behaviour of Octenidine dihydrochloride by comparison with 1H, 13C and 15N NMR shift data. With various NMR experiments, the possible mesomeric structures are studied and it is shown that an E/Z-isomerization plays a role, corresponding to a hindered rotation of the heteroaromatic pyridine ring. In this context, NIR spectroscopy and principal component analysis emphasize the occurrence of a modified temperature-dependent spectral behaviour of Octenidine dihydrochloride. In addition, we made a detailed study of the NMR-characteristics of Octenidine dihydrochloride using 1D- and 2D-experiments.