Stability kinetics of fusidic acid: Development and validation of stability indicating analytical method by employing Analytical Quality by Design approach in medicinal product(s)

A simple, rapid, accurate, reproducible and sensitive reverse phase HPLC method for the estimation of fusidic acid (FA) by means of Analytical Quality by Design (AQbD) was the aim of the present study. Initially, the vital pre-requisites for AQbD like analytical method target profile and critical analytical attributes (CAAs) like theoretical plates, tailing factor and percent assay were defined. An octadecyl silyl silica C-18 column with a packing size of 5 mu m was employed and the detection was performed at 235 nm using UV-detector. The separation was performed with isocratic elution employing mixture of methanol: acetonitrile (5: 95, v/v) and an aqueous phase with pH of 2.8 containing 0.1% orthophosphoric acid in the ratio of 60: 40 (v/v). Ishikawa fish-bone diagram provided the basis of the variation in CAAs with various inputs. Taguchi Design was selected as the initial screening design to select critical method parameters (CMPs) affecting method development and Central Composite Design (CCD) was further applied for systematic optimization of chromatographic method by evaluating CAAs. Crucial parameters viz. limit of detection, limit of quantification, specificity, linearity and sensitivity were employed to validate the method in accordance with the ICH guidelines. Stress degradation studies were performed and the developed method was able to successfully differentiate the degraded products from the parent drug, that too in a topical gel. In conclusion, the findings of the present study validated the utility of AQbD in the systematic design of a liquid chromatographic method with fine sensitivity for FA estimation in medicinal products.