Prediction of Degradation Profiles for Various Sartans under Solvent-Free Mechanochemical Conditions

For the approval of a drug, the stability data must be submitted to regulatory authorities. Such analyses are often time-consuming and cost-intensive. Forced degradation studies are mainly carried out under harsh conditions in the dissolved state, often leading to extraneous degradation profiles for a solid drug. Oxidative mechanochemical degradation offers the possibility of generating realistic degradation profiles. In this study, a sustainable mechanochemical procedure is presented for the degradation of five active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from the sartan family: losartan potassium, irbesartan, valsartan, olmesartan medoxomil, and telmisartan. High-resolution mass spectrometry enabled the detection of impurities already present in untreated APIs and allowed the elucidation of degradation products. Significant degradation profiles could already be obtained after 15-60 min of ball milling time. Many of the identified degradation products are described in the literature and pharmacopoeias, emphasizing the significance of our results and the applicability of this approach to predict degradation profiles for drugs in the solid state.