Nitrosamine Impurities in Drug Substances and Drug Products

Nitrosamine impurities are known to be mutagenic and carcinogenic, very small exposure of these impurities can lead to cancer. These impurities may be formed and get incorporated into drug substance or drug product through reagent, catalyst, solvent or raw materials used in the process of manufacturing. The various regulatory authority has published the press release or notice regarding the control of these impurities with the interim limit. Nitrosamine impurities can be avoided by taking precaution in the manufacturing of drug substance and drug products. Validated analytical methods are to be used to identify and quantify these impurities hence it needs highly sensitive instrument which can detect these impurities to the trace level at given interim limit. Liquid chromatography or Gas chromatography, along with mass detector is majorly used for their determination