Dronedarone HCl—Quercetin Co-Amorphous System: Characterization and RP—HPLC Method Development for Simultaneous Estimation

Background Dronedarone HCl is an anti-arrhythmic drug indicated for atrial fibrillation. Dronedarone HCl(DRN) has a low solubility of 2 µg/mL and 4% bioavailability, thus it is formulated as co-amorphous system to enhance its solubility by using Quercetin(QCT) as coformer. Literature lacks a sensitive, accurate and economic method for simultaneous quantification of DRN and QCT in formulation. Objective To develop a RP-HPLC method for simultaneous estimation of DRN and QCT in DRN-QCT co-amorphous system. Method Co-amorphous system was prepared using solvent evaporation technique using DRN and QCT in 1:1 molar ratio. The separation was achieved on Purospher® STAR C18 (250 mm × 4.6 mm × 5 μm) column with mobile phase comprising of Acetonitrile and 25 mM phosphate buffer pH 3.6 (60:40, % v/v). Results DRN and QCT retained at 6.7 and 3.5 min, respectively. For both molecules, method was developed with a wide linearity range of 0.2–500 µg/mL. LOD for DRN was found to be 0.0013 and 0.0026 µg/mL for QCT. Also, LOQ for DRN was found to be 0.0041 and 0.0078 µg/mL for QCT. Conclusion Method was validated as per ICHQ2R1 guidelines for linearity, precision, accuracy, and robustness. The method was used in simultaneous quantification of DRN and QCT in co-amorphous samples. Highlights The method developed was used for the analysis of content uniformity and solubility samples of co-amorphous system, where the method was able to successfully quantify DRN and QCT. Low detection and quantification limits contribute to sensitivity of the method and wide linearity range assures the robust and precise quantification of molecules.