Simultaneous quantitative resolution of atorvastatin calcium and fenofibrate in pharmaceutical preparation by using derivative ratio spectrophotometry and chemometric calibrations.

In the present work, five different spectrophotometric techniques for simultaneous determination of formulations containing atorvastatin calcium (ATOR) and fenofibrate (FENO) in various combinations are described. In ratio spectra derivative spectrophotometry, analytical signals were measured at wavelengths corresponding to either maximums or minimums for both drugs in first derivative spectra of ratio spectra obtained by using either spectrum as divisor. For the remaining four methods using chemometric techniques, namely, classical least squares (CLS), inverse least squares (ILS), principal component regression (PCR) and partial least squares (PLS), the calibrations were constructed by using the absorption data matrix corresponding to the concentration data matrix, with measurements in the range of 231 - 310 nm (Deltalambda = 1 nm) in their zero-order spectra. The linearity range was found to be 4 - 22 and 2 - 20 microg/ml for ATOR and FENO, respectively. The validity of the proposed methods was successfully assessed for analyses of both drugs in laboratory-prepared mixtures and in commercial tablet formulations.