Sensitive and selective bioscreening of the most commonly used coronavirus disease drug, Favipiravir, and its co-administered therapeutic, Meropenem, in human plasma.

Favipiravir and Meropenem have been concurrently used as directly acting antiviral and antibiotic agents for the treatment of coronavirus disease in human plasma. Accurate and specific reversed phase ultra-performance liquid chromatographic and high-performance thin-layer chromatographic methods were developed and validated for the first time analysis of this combination in spiked human plasma using Cefepime as an internal standard. In the developed ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography method, separation was performed on a BEH C18 column with a mixture of ACN and 0.05 M potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate (pH = 3) in a ratio of 10:90 (v/v) as an eluate. Scanning of the separated peaks was at 298 nm. The developed method showed high sensitivity, and the drugs showed linearity in the range of 5-70 μg/ml for Favipiravir and 2-50 μg/ml for Meropenem. The proposed high-performance thin-layer chromatographic method included the separation using a mixture of ethyl acetate:methanol:deionized water:formic acid (5:4:1.5:0.3, by volume), then spots detection at 300 nm. Methods were investigated for greenness using the eco-scale and national environmental method index tools and were validated according to food and drug administration guidelines. Methods can be applied for bio-analysis and therapeutic drug monitoring studies.