Stability indicating RP-LC-PDA method for the quantitative analysis of saxagliptin in pharmaceutical dosage form

Saxagliptin is a potent and selective inhibitor of the enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase 4. It is effective in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus because it stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin. In the present study, a liquid chromatography method was developed and validated to quantify the drug in tablets. This method was based on the isocratic elution of saxagliptin, using a mobile phase consisting of 0.1% phosphoric acid at pH 3.0 - methanol (70: 30, v/v) at a flow rate of 1 mL.min^-1 with UV detection at 225 nm. The chromatographic separation was achieved in 8 minutes on a Waters XBridge C18 column (250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5µm) maintained at ambient temperature. The proposed method proved to be specific and robust for the quality control of saxagliptin in pharmaceutical dosage forms, showing good linearity in the range of 15.0 - 100.0 µg.mL^-1 (r>0.999), precision (RSD<1.49%) and accuracy values between 99.42 and 101.59%. The method was found to be stability indicating and was successfully applied for the analysis of saxagliptin in tablets in a routine quality control laboratory.