Development and validation of a HPLC method for the determination of voriconazole in pharmaceutical formulation using an experimental design

A rapid and sensitive RP-HPLC method with UV detection (260 nm) for routine analysis of voriconazole in a pharmaceutical formulation (Vfend^®) was developed. Chromatography was performed with mobile phase containing a mixture of acetonitrile and water (50:50, v/v) with flow rate was of 1.0 ml min⁻¹. Quantitation was accomplished with internal standard method. The procedure was validated for linearity (correlation coefficient = 0.9999), accuracy, robustness and intermediate precision. Experimental design was used for validation of robustness and intermediate precision. To test robustness, three factors were considered. Percentage of acetonitrile in mobile phase, flow rate and p^H; an increase in the flow rate results in a decrease of the drug found concentration, while the percentage of organic modifier and p^H have no important effect on the response. For intermediate precision measure the variables considered were: analyst, equipment and number of days. The R.S.D. value (0.45%, n = 24) indicated a good precision of the analytical method. The proposed method was simple, highly sensitive, precise and accurate and retention time less than 4 min indicating that the method is useful for routine quality control.