Validated chiral chromatographic methods for Clopidogrel bisulphate and its related substances in bulk drug and pharmaceutical dosage forms

Two validated chromatographic methods developed for the analysis of S Clopidogrel bisulphate in the presence of its related substances listed in the United States and British Pharmacopoeias including its inactive R enantiomer are described. The first method is a simple thin layer chromatographic (TLC) method where separation is performed on pre-coated silica gel 60 F254 plates using methanol/diethylamine/heptanes/water containing 20 mg vancomycin hydrochloride (7 : 7 : 1.5 : 0.5 vol. %) as a mobile phase. R_f values were found to be 0.69, 0.74, 0.78, 0.84 and 0.88 for R clopidogrel, S clopidogrel, related substances A, B1 and B2, respectively. The second method depends on the separation by HPLC on a Lux polysaccharide chiral column with UV detection at 220 nm using 0.1 vol. % diethyl amine in methanol pumped at a rate of 1 mL min^?1. Retention times were found to be 1.90 min, 2.82 min, 3.00 min, 3.27 min and 3.71 min for the related substances A, B1, C which are clopidogrel R enantiomer, B2, and S clopidogrel, respectively. The proposed methods were validated in accordance with the ICH guidelines and successfully applied to the determination of S clopidogrel bisulphate in pure powder and dosage forms without interference from the excipients and to affirm the dosage form to be pure S clopidogrel and devoid of the R enantiomer, which is inactive.