Identification, isolation and characterization of potential degradation products in pioglitazone hydrochloride drug substance.

During stress degradation studies of pioglitazone hydrochloride, one major unknown oxidative degradation impurity and two major unknown base degradation impurities were identified by LC-MS. These impurities were isolated using preparative liquid chromatography. Based on the spectral data (1H NMR, 13C NMR, MS and IR), oxidative degradation impurity, base degradation impurity-1 and base degradation impurity-2 were characterized as pioglitazone N-oxide, 3-(4-(2-(5-ethylpyridine-2yl) ethoxy) phenyl)-2-mercaptopropanoic acid and 2-(1-carboxy-2-{4-[2-(5-ethylpyridine-2yl)-ethoxy] phenyl}-ethyl disulfanyl)-3-{4-[2-(5-ethylpyridine-2yl)-ethoxy] phenyl propanoicacid, respectively. The formation and mechanism of these impurities were discussed and presented.