Tablet identification using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for pharmaceutical quality control

Abstract

A need for more reliable and faster analytical methods for the identification of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in finished pharmaceutical products is launched by the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use, Test Procedures and Acceptance Criteria for New Drug Substances and New Drug Products: Chemical Substances, Q6A (1999). The use of infrared spectroscopy is suggested as a means to obtain specific identification. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a reliable method that offers important advantages for the large-scale production of tablets, such as high-throughput and accurate multiparametric data collection. Despite the grown number of reported NIRS identification methods, only a few methods have been approved by the regulatory authorities, which might be due to difficulties on clearly presenting the methods in official documents and audits. Motivated by the lack of clear protocols for the NIRS method's development, here we propose a process for building reliable identification NIRS methods. For illustration purposes, a method is described for the identification of API in coated tablets containing 2%, 4% and 8% of thiamazole. The method described was successfully validated according to the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) of Technical Requirement for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use, Validation of Analytical Procedures: Text and Methodology, Q2 (2005). The described method was subsequently approved by European national authorities and thus is suitable for use in cGMP environment.