Quantum mechanical NMR full spin analysis in pharmaceutical identity testing and quality control

Issues related to pharmaceutical quality are arising at an alarming rate. Pharmaceutical quality concerns both the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and the Finished Drug Product/ Formulation. Recently, there has been a significant increase in the number of reports of harmful impurities in marketed drug formulations. Impurities range from solvents, reactants, adulterants, and catalysts to synthetic byproducts. Quality concerns in commercial preparations may also arise due to shelf life stability. Furthermore, a number of falsified and substandard drug cases have been reported. Most of the techniques which are currently in place can, at best, detect the impurities, but cannot identify them unless they are already known and can be compared to a standard. On the other hand, H-1 NMR spectroscopy detects all the hydrogen containing species, typically provides information to elucidate structures partially or even completely, and through its absolute quantitative capabilities even can detect the presence hydrogen-free species indirectly. The structural properties that produce H-1 NMR signals as characteristic representations of a given molecule are the chemical shifts (delta in ppm) and coupling constants (J in Hz). Along with the line widths (omega(1/2) in Hz), these parameters are bound to both the molecule and the NMR experimental conditions by quantum mechanical (QM) principles. This means that the H-1 NMR spectra of APIs can be precisely calculated and compared to the experimental data. This review explains how H-1 NMR spectroscopy coupled with Full Spin Analysis can contribute towards the quality control of pharmaceuticals by improving structural dereplication and achieving simultaneous quantification of both APIs and their contaminants. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Issues related to pharmaceutical quality are on the rise, with an increase in reports of harmful impurities in marketed drug formulations. Current detection techniques may not be able to identify unknown impurities, highlighting the need for more advanced methods in pharmaceutical quality control.