The characterization of orally-delivered peptide pharmaceuticals presents several challenges to analytical methods in comparison to characterization of conventional small-molecule drugs. These challenges include the analysis and characterization of difficult-to-separate impurities, secondary structure, the amorphous solid-state form, and the integrity of enteric-coated drug delivery systems. This work presents the multidisciplinary analytical characterization of a parathyroid hormone (PTH) peptide active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and an oral formulation of this API within enteric-coated sucrose spheres. The analysis of impurities and degradation products in API and formulated drug product was facilitated by the development of an ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) method for analysis by high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS). The use of UHPLC allowed for additional resolution needed to detect impurities and degradation products of interest. The secondary structure was probed using a combination of solution-state NMR, infrared, and circular dichroism spectroscopic methods. Solid-state NMR is used to detect amorphous API in a nondestructive manner directly within the coated sucrose sphere formulation. Fluorescence and Raman microscopy were used in conjunction with Raman mapping to show enteric coating integrity and observe the distribution of API beneath the enteric-coating on the sucrose spheres. The methods are combined in a multidisciplinary approach to characterize the quality of the enteric-coated peptide product.
A fixed-dose combination (FDC) may improve patient compliance and clinical outcomes in the management of cardiovascular risk in hypertensive and dyslipidemic patients. The study (NCT02075619) evaluated the bioavailability of 2 prototype FDC tablet formulations (FDC1 and FDC2) of amlodipine/rosuvastatin (10 mg/20 mg) compared with coadministered reference tablets. It was a randomized, single-dose, 3-way crossover pilot study in healthy white (n = 12) and Chinese (n = 12) adults. Three treatments (FDC1, FDC2, and reference) were administered after fasting with a washout period of 12-17 days. The pharmacokinetics of amlodipine and rosuvastatin were studied for all subjects (pooled) and by ethnicity. Safety and tolerability were also evaluated. Both FDCs met the bioequivalence criteria (90% confidence intervals falling within the range of 0.80-1.25) for AUC0-t and Cmax for amlodipine and rosuvastatin. Intrasubject variability (AUC0-t and Cmax ) was in the region of 23%-25% for rosuvastatin and 7%-10% for amlodipine. The FDC formulations demonstrated similar bioavailability to coadministered commercially available amlodipine and rosuvastatin. All treatments were generally well tolerated.
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