Isolation, Identification, and Characterisation of Degradation Products and the Development and Validation of a Stability-Indicating Method for the Estimation of Impurities in the Tolterodine Tartrate Formulation

A short and sensitive stability-indicating gradient RP-UPLC method was developed for the quantitative determination of process-related impurities and degradation products of tolterodine tartrate in pharmaceutical formulations. The method was developed by using the Waters ACQUITY UPLC™ BEH shield RP18 (2.1 x 100 mm, 1.7 μm) column with a mobile phase containing a gradient mixture of solvent A and B at a detection wavelength of 210 nm. During the stress study, the degradation products of tolterodine tartrate were well-resolved from tolterodine and its impurities and the mass balances were found to be satisfactory in all the stress conditions, thus proving the stability-indicating capability of the method. The developed method was validated as per ICH guidelines with respect to specificity, linearity, limit of detection and quantifica-tion, accuracy, precision, ruggedness, and robustness. During the stability (40°C/75% RH, 3 months) analysis of the drug product, one unknown impurity was detected by the above stability-indicating method. The unknown impurity was isolated by preparative HPLC and subjected to mass and NMR studies. Based on the spectral data, the unknown impurity was characterised as 2-(3-amino-1-phenylpropyl)-4-methylphenol (des-N,N-diisopropyl tolterodine). Structural elucidation of the impurity by spectral data is discussed in detail.