Stability-Indicating LC Determination of a New Antihypertensive, Olmesartan Medoxomil in Tablets

A stability-indicating liquid chromatographic method was developed and validated for quantitative determination of olmesartan medoxomil (OLM) in coated tablets in the presence of degradation products generated under stress conditions. An isocratic LC separation was performed using a Phenomenex RP-18 column using a mobile phase consisting of water: triethylamine: acetonitrile (60:0.3:40 v/v/v, pH adjusted to 6.3 with phosphoric acid). The flow rate was 1.2 mL min(-1) and the detection was achieved with a photodiode array detector set at 257 nm. The response was linear over a range of 10.0 to 30.0 mu g mL(-1) (r = 0.9999). The specificity and stability-indicating capability of the method was verified subjecting the reference substance and drug product to hydrolytic, oxidative, photolytic, and thermal stress conditions. The method showed a good and consistent recovery (100.2%) with low intra- and inter-day relative standard deviation (RSD) (<= 1.0%). A considerable degradation occurred in all stress conditions and the degradation product was well resolved from the main peak. There was no interference of the excipients in the determination of the active pharmaceutical ingredient. Thus, the proposed method was found to be stability-indicating and can be used for routine analysis for quantitative determination of OLM in coated tablets without the interference of major degradation products.