Stability-indicating HPLC method for the determination of darunavir ethanolate

A novel stability-indicating reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method has been developed for the quantitative determination of darunavir ethanolate, an HIV-1 protease inhibitor. The chromatographic separation was achieved using an X-Bridge C18 (150 × 4.6 mm × 3.5 µm) HPLC column in isocratic mode employing 0.01M ammonium formate (pH.3.0) buffer and acetonitrile in the ratio of 55:45 (v/v) with a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The detector wavelength was monitored at 265 nm and the column temperature was maintained at 30°C. Darunavir ethanolate was exposed to thermal, photolytic, acid, base and oxidative stress conditions. Considerable degradation of the drug substance was found to occur under acid, base and oxidative stress conditions. The peak homogeneity data of darunavir ethanolate obtained by photodiode array detection demonstrated the specificity of the method in the presence of degradants. The degradation products were well resolved from primary peak of darunavir, indicating that the method is specific and stability-indicating. The HPLC method was validated as per International Conference on Harmonization guidelines with respect to specificity, precision, linearity, accuracy and robustness. Regression analysis showed a correlation coefficient value greater than 0.999. The accuracy of the method was established based on the recovery obtained for darunavir ethanolate.