Quantification of Pimavanserin in Bulk and Tablet Dosage Form Using A Stability Indicating High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Method

Background: Pimavanserin, an antipsychotic agent, is used to treat patients suffering with Parkinson's disease. Till now no stability indicating reverse phase HPLC method was reported for the quantification of pimavanserin in bulk and tablet dosage form. Hence in the present study, a new sensitive, precise and accurate stability indicating reverse phase HPLC method with photodiode array detector has been developed for the quantification of pimavanserin in bulk and tablet dosage form. Methods: Separation and analysis of pimavanserin was achieved on Kromasil C18 (5 µm, 250 mm × 4.6 mm) column using 0.1M NaH2PO4, methanol and acetonitrile in ratio of 55:30:15 (v/v/v) as mobile phase at 25°C. The flow rate was 1.0 ml/min. The effluents were monitored with detector set at 239 nm. The method validation was done with regard to the guidelines by the International Conference on Harmonization. Pimavanserin was subjected to acid, alkali and neutral hydrolysis, hydrogen peroxide oxidation, thermal degradation, and photo (sunlight) degradation. Results: Linear relationship was obtained between the concentration of drug and peak area response in the range of 4.25-34.0 µg/ml. The limits of detection and quantitation were found to be 0.027 µg/ml and 0.089 µg/ml, respectively. All the validation characteristics were within the acceptance criteria. The peaks of degradation products were well resolved from the pimavanserin peak. Conclusion: The developed and validated method is able to quantify the pimavanserin in the presence of degradation products.