Purity assessment of recombinant human granulocyte colony‐stimulating factor in finished drug product by capillary zone electrophoresis

Current methods for determination of impurities with different charge‐to‐volume ratio are limited especially in terms of sensitivity and precision. The main goal of this research was to establish a quantitative method for determination of impurities with charges differing from that of recombinant human granulocyte colony‐stimulating factor (rh G ‐ CSF , filgrastim) with superior precision and sensitivity compared to existing methods. A CZE method has been developed, optimized, and validated for a purity assessment of filgrastim in liquid pharmaceutical formulations. Optimal separation of filgrastim from the related impurities with different charges was achieved on a 50 μm id fused‐silica capillary of a total length of 80.5 cm. A BGE that contains 100 mM phosphoric acid adjusted to pH 7.0 with triethanolamine was used. The applied voltage was 20 kV while the temperature was maintained at 25°C. UV detection was set to 200 nm. Method was validated in terms of selectivity/specificity, linearity, precision, LOD , LOQ , stability, and robustness. Linearity was observed in the concentration range of 6–600 μg/mL and the LOQ was determined to be 0.3% relative to the concentration of filgrastim of 0.6 mg/mL. Other validation parameters were also found to be acceptable; thus the method was successfully applied for a quantitative purity assessment of filgrastim in a finished drug product.