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Surveillance testing is an essential component to ensuring safe, effective, and high-quality drug products are available in the commercially marketed US supply chain. Surveillance allows the agency to assess product quality and monitor for potential adulteration of drug products being used by consumers. Opioid drug products can be adulterated to enhance the effect of the intended active ingredient. Numerous accounts have been reported where fentanyl has been used as an adulterant in illicit street drugs such as heroin, cocaine, or methamphetamine. To efficiently surveil the legitimate opioid supply chain, an analytical method with the ability to simultaneously detect, identify and quantify opioid molecules is desired. In this study, a multi-opioid protocol (MOP) using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC-HRMS) technology was developed and validated for the detection and quantification of 27 opioid drugs. The MOP analytical procedure was applied to the analysis of drug substance and finished dosage forms. MOP was used to identify and quantify active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) listed on the label claim, and in the case of suspected economically motivated adulteration could identify and quantify undeclared opioid APIs. The analytical method analysis time was 16 minutes and the LOD and LOQ in full MS mode were (average) 0.3 and 0.8 ng/mL, respectively. The validation criteria parameters were satisfactory based on international guidelines (ICH). The MOP was successfully applied to the analysis of over 160 drug substances and finished products. For all samples tested in the study, their identities were confirmed, and assays met specifications. Overall, there was no evidence of illegal substitution or adulteration in any of the ingredients and products tested from the legitimate commercial marketed US supply chain., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The FDA initiated a cross-sectional, statistically based sampling and testing study to characterize the quality of marketed alcohol-based hand sanitizer (ABHS) by evaluating the alcohol content and impurities present in ABHS products manufactured by establishments that registered with the FDA during March-April 2020. A stratified sampling design divided the population of manufacturers into independent groups based on each establishment's level of experience with FDA oversight and its geographic location. ABHS products were collected and analyzed by spatially offset Raman spectroscopy and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The GC-MS results for 310 products, from 196 newly registered domestic manufacturers, showed that 71.6% (± 5.7%) of these manufacturers had violative products. In 104 (33.5%) cases, the alcohol content did not meet label claim assay specifications but still fell within CDC efficacy ranges. Ethanol ABHS products failed more often overall (assay and impurities) (84.3%) and for impurities (84.3%), than isopropanol ABHS products (11.2% and 6.2%, respectively). Differences in test results across active ingredients were statistically significant. Ethanol ABHS products often (63.5% of cases) failed due to the presence of acetal or acetaldehyde, particularly in products with pH ≤ 6. Other impurities were also detected in several ABHS products, suggesting the use of low-grade alcohol in the manufacture of these products. Evidence was insufficient to conclude that having experience manufacturing FDA-regulated products, or lack thereof, influenced product-level violative results. This study highlights the importance of sourcing and testing active pharmaceutical ingredients to produce quality drug products., (© 2023. This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply.)

The investigation of marketed hand wipe sanitizers presented an analytical challenge owing to the need for extraction from the solid matrix of the products. The present work describes the development of a new sample preparation method for the extraction of analytes from the hand wipe sanitizer matrix into dimethyl sulfoxide for analysis using headspace GCMS. Alcohol-based hand sanitizer (ABHS) wipe products labeled to contain ethanol or isopropanol as active ingredients were tested, varying in the size and weight of the wipes. The spike recovery assay was confirmed using spiking solutions containing impurities at concentrations equivalent to 50, 100 and 200% of the interim concentration limits. All of the tested analytes showed recovery within the allowable limits (80-120%). Six marketed ABHS wipe products were tested and no impurities above the FDA interim limits were observed. One product contained ethanol below the 60% v/v limit and another product was mislabeled for isopropanol and was found to contain ethanol instead. Four of the six ABHS products did not meet the label claim, which may affect the product quality. The analytical method and sample preparation procedures will provide the FDA and ABHS manufacturers with the capability to conduct quality assurance testing of hand wipe sanitizers for active ingredient content and impurities., (Published 2022. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.)

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased usage of hand sanitizer products by the public to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and decrease the likelihood of acquiring the disease. The increase in demand has also led to an increase in the number of manufacturers. This work describes the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) laboratories efforts to develop tests to assess the quality of hand sanitizer products containing ethanol or isopropanol as the primary active ingredient. The products were evaluated for the active ingredient content and determination of the 12 impurities listed in the FDA Hand Sanitizer Temporary Guidance, followed by a spike recovery assay performed to verify the test results. Extensive method development was conducted including an investigation into the stability of ethanol, isopropanol, and the 12 impurities. Stability and kinetic studies confirmed the instability of acetal in acidic liquid hand sanitizer products during spike recovery assay testing. The headspace GC-MS method was validated according to ICH Q2 (R1) guidelines and the spike recovery assay was validated using three concentrations of standards for the drug product. During method application, six liquid hand sanitizer products were tested and all were determined to have ethanol or isopropanol above 70% v/v. Two liquid hand sanitizer products were determined to contain acetaldehyde as an impurity above the FDA recommended safety levels., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41120-021-00049-8., Competing Interests: Competing interests The authors are all US government employees and there are no conflicts of interests to declare., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

Polysorbate (PS) is a widely used polymeric excipient in biotherapeutic formulations to stabilize and protect protein drugs. Commercial PS is a highly heterogeneous mixture of structurally related components. PS composition can impact the stabilizer performance of PS in formulated protein drugs. Characterization of PS heterogeneity is, however, analytically challenging. In this work, a high-throughput screening protocol is presented for the profiling of the PS-80 polysorbate form using high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) coupled with a rapid hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) exchange in deuterated methanol. The protocol takes advantage of accurate mass measurements from HRMS analysis and utilizes H/D exchange-induced mass shifts that are characteristic to structures (particularly the number of terminal hydroxyl groups) of PS molecules to definitively identify species. In particular, mass shifts caused by deuterium uptake were used (1) to confirm molecular identities assigned by accurate mass measurements (which adds an extra level of identification confidence) and (2) to differentiate isomers that have an identical mass (thus, undistinguishable by high mass accuracy), but differ in the number of terminal hydroxyls. These data were input to an automated searching algorithm against a molecular mass database covering over 17000 potential PS-80 molecular species. The identified species were then visualized with Kendrick Mass Defect plots. The analysis protocol identified and profiled over 180 species from PS-80 samples in a high-throughput fashion without requiring chromatographic separation to reduce complexity of mixtures or tandem mass spectrometric analysis to conduct structural elucidation.

Penicillins and some non-penicillin β-lactams may cause potentially life-threatening allergic reactions. Thus, possible cross contamination of β-lactams in food or drugs can put people at risk. Therefore, when there is a reasonable possibility that a non-penicillin product could be contaminated by penicillin, the drug products are tested for penicillin contamination. Here, a sensitive and rapid method for simultaneous determination of multiple β-lactam antibiotics using high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was developed and validated. Mass spectral acquisition was performed on a Q-Exactive HF mass spectrometer in positive ion mode with parallel reaction monitoring (PRM). The method was validated for seven β-lactam antibiotics including one or two from each class and a synthetic intermediate. The quantification precision and accuracy at 200 ppb were in the range of ± 1.84 to ± 4.56 and - 5.20 to 3.44%, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.2 ppb, and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) was 2 ppb with a linear dynamic range (LDR) of 2-2000 ppb for all eight β-lactams. From various drug products, the recoveries of eight β-lactams at 200 and 2 ppb ranged from 93.8 ± 3.2 to 112.1 ± 4.2% and 89.7 ± 4.6 to 110.6 ± 1.9%, respectively. The application of the method for detecting cross contamination of trace β-lactams (0.2 ppb) and for monitoring facility surface cleaning was also investigated. This sensitive and fast method was fit-for-purpose for detecting and quantifying trace amount of β-lactam contamination, monitoring cross contamination in manufacturing processes, and determining potency for regulatory purposes and for quality control.

Exposure to unknown, mislabeled, and counterfeit pharmaceutical products is a worldwide problem that presents a serious risk to public health. Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy can serve as a useful tool for screening pharmaceuticals in a rapid and cost-effective manner to ensure that drug products are safe and effective. By applying chemometric techniques to NIR spectra from finished products in tablet form, minor spectral differences are discoverable, even in instances where the tablets being evaluated contain the same active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Differences in NIR spectra can occur as a result of various factors including the types and quantities of pharmaceutical excipients used to generate the product and associated manufacturing site process variables. In this study, variability in the NIR spectra of intact tablets with the same API was evaluated using an unsupervised chemometric technique in the form of hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) on a data set consisting of NIR spectra from more than 800 ciprofloxacin tablets from six manufacturers. Results obtained from HCA and squared Euclidean distance measurements indicate the largest dissimilarities in NIR spectra occur between manufacturers. Based on these findings, a quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) model was built following dimensionality reduction by principal component analysis for the purpose of predicting the origin of ciprofloxacin tablets. Using QDA, we were able to correctly classify a collection of 907 tablets with greater than 96% accuracy. Chemometric models such as the one developed here could ultimately be employed as part of a large, diversified drug surveillance program.

An ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) method was developed for the rapid detection of mitragynine, the most abundant alkaloid in Mitragyna speciosa also known as kratom. The peak corresponding to the mitragynine protonated ion exhibited a reduced ion mobility of 0.95±0.00014cm 2 /(Vs), and the mitragynine limit of detection using IMS was 0.5ng. The IMS method was applied to the analysis of 15 commercial samples suspected of containing kratom. IMS results were compared to those obtained from liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis of the same samples. Mitragynine was conclusively detected in 14 of 15 samples using LC-MS/MS and 13 of 15 samples using IMS. The discrepancy between methods reflected the fact that one sample contained mitragynine at a concentration below the IMS detection limit. This study demonstrates the utility of IMS for the rapid screening of products containing kratom as well as the scientific reliability of the IMS screening method, which was demonstrated by comparing the IMS results to the confirmatory results obtained using LC-MS/MS., (Published by Elsevier B.V.)