The Stability-Indicating Ultra High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Diode Array Detector and Tandem Mass Spectrometry Method Applied for the Forced Degradation Study of Ritlecitinib: An Appraisal of Green and Blue Metrics

  • Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2025 Jan 17;18(1):124. doi: 10.3390/ph18010124.
Jelena Kovačić  1 ,  Daniela Amidžić Klarić  1 ,  Nikša Turk  2 ,  Željko Krznarić  2  3 ,  Emma Riordan  4 ,  Ana Mornar  1
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
  • 2. Department of Gastroenterology, University Hospital Centre, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
  • 3. School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
  • 4. School of Pharmacy, University College Cork, T12 YT20 Cork, Ireland.
PMID: 39861185 DOI: 10.3390/ph18010124
Abstract

Background/objectives: Janus kinase inhibitors open new horizons for small-molecule drugs in treating inflammatory bowel disease, with ritlecitinib demonstrating significant efficacy in clinical trials for ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Ritlecitinib, a second-generation JAK3 Inhibitor, is a novel therapeutic agent for alopecia areata and Other autoimmune conditions.

Methods: A new stability-indicating UHPLC-DAD-MS/MS method was developed, validated, and applied for a forced degradation study of ritlecitinib under ICH guidelines.

Results: The method demonstrated high specificity, sensitivity (LOD: 0.04 µg/mL; LOQ: 0.14 µg/mL), precision (RSD ≤ 0.15%), and accuracy (99.9-100.3%). Forced degradation studies under acidic, basic, oxidative, thermal, and photolytic conditions revealed four novel degradation products. Basic degradation followed second-order kinetics, while oxidative degradation followed zero-order kinetics.

Conclusions: The validated method reliably characterized ritlecitinib's stability and degradation products, providing essential data for optimizing formulation, determining proper storage conditions, anticipating drug-excipient interactions, and ensuring quality control. The eco-friendliness and applicability of the developed forced degradation procedure were evaluated using various green and blue metric tools. Incorporating green analytical principles underscores its potential for sustainable pharmaceutical analysis.

Keywords
HPLC; JAK3 inhibitor; degradation kinetics; forced degradation study; green analytical chemistry; mass spectrometry; ritlecitinib; stability-indicating method.
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