A Novel Spectrofluorimetric Method for Vibegron in the Newly FDA Approved Pharmaceutical Formulation and in Human Plasma: Analytical QbD Strategy for Method Development and Optimization

Abstract

Vibegron is a novel selective beta-3 adrenergic receptor agonist molecule, recently approved by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in tablet pharmaceutical formulation for treating overactive bladder syndrome. Such formulation necessitates the development of a simple, fast and cost-effective methodology capable of assaying the drug in various real samples with high sensitivity. Herein, a facile and robust spectrofluorimetric method was introduced, for the first time, for vibegron quantification based on analytical quality-by-design approach. The method involves drug reaction with dansyl chloride at pH 9.8, as a smart approach to overcome the non-fluorescent nature of vibegron, giving a highly fluorescent yellow derivative measured at 514 nm after being excited at 345 nm. Plausible reaction scheme between the drug and dansyl chloride was elucidated through studying the differences in their infrared (IR) spectra. Variables affecting fluorescence intensities were carefully screened and rationally optimized via preliminary scouting studies and central composite design for accurate and robust results. Full International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) validation protocol was followed where linearity was achieved in range of 20.0-400.0 ng/mL with minimum detectability of 3.6 ng/mL. The proposed method expressed good capability in assaying the marketed dosage forms with no excipient inference. Finally, the high sensitivity of such method paved the way for extending its application to quantify vibegron in spiked human plasma at concentrations around its real human plasma concentrations for further bioavailability studies.