Isolation, synthesis and characterization of impurities in celecoxib, a COX-2 inhibitor

During the impurity profile of Celecoxib, four polar impurities (impurity I, II, III and IV) and one non-polar impurity (impurity V) with respect to Celecoxib were detected by HPLC. LC-MS has been employed in this impurity profile study. The three polar impurities (I, II and III) were found to be process related while impurities (IV and V) turned out to be isomers. The impurities III, IV and V were isolated with the help of preparative HPLC. The structure of impurities III, IV (ortho-isomer) and V (regio-isomer) were confirmed as [5-(4-methylphenyl)-3-trifluoromethyl-1H-pyrazole], 4-[5-(2'-methyl phenyl)-3-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazol-1-yl] benzenesulfonamide, and 4-[4-(4'-methylphenyl)-3-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazol-1-yl]-benzenesulfonamide, respectively. The structures of impurities I, II, III and IV were confirmed by synthesis and structural characterization using spectral data. However, the impurity V was not synthesized.