Impurity profiling of trandolapril under stress testing: Structure elucidation of by-products and development of degradation pathway.

Various regulatory authorities like International Conference on Harmonization (ICH), US Food and Drug Administration, Canadian Drug and Health Agency are emphasizing on the purity requirements and the identification of impurities in active pharmaceutical drugs. Qualification of the impurities is the process of acquiring and evaluating data that establishes biological safety of an individual impurity; thus, revealing the need and scope of impurity profiling of drugs in pharmaceutical research. As no stability-indicating method is available for identification of degradation products of trandolapril, a new angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI), under stress testing, the development of an accurate method is needed for quantification and qualification of degradation products. Ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled to electrospray tandem mass spectrometry was used for the rapid and simultaneous analysis of trandolapril and its degradation products. Chromatographic separation was achieved in less than 4 min, with improved peak resolution and sensitivity. Thanks to this method, the kinetics of trandolapril degradation under various operating conditions and the characterization of the structure of the by-products formed during stress testing have been determined. Thereafter, a mechanism of trandolapril degradation in acid and neutral conditions, including all the identified products, was then proposed.