Feasible TLC-Spectro-Densitometry Technique for Simultaneous Determination of Two Hepatitis C Antiviral Drugs, Sofosbuvir and Simeprevir: Application to Combined Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms and Human Plasma

A high-performance thin-layer chromatographic method was developed and validated for the concurrent determination of simeprevir (SMV) and sofosbuvir (SOF). The chromatographic separation was attained on silica gel 60 F-254 as stationary phase and ethyl acetate-hexane-methanol (5.0:4.0:1.0, v/v/v) as developing solvent with UV detection at 273 nm. The R-F values were 0.67 +/- 0.02 and 0.43 +/- 0.02 for SMV and SOF, respectively. The method has been validated in respect to the guidelines of the International Conference on Harmonization. Linearity was maintained between 60-1,000 and 70-1,200 ng/band for SMV and SOF, respectively, with good correlation coefficients (0.9993-0.9997) for both drugs. The suggested method was highly sensitive as the calculated detection limits were 15 and 22 ng/band, while the quantitation limits were 44 and 66 ng/ band for SMV and SOF, respectively. The suggested methodology has been effectively employed for the determination of the mentioned drugs in their pure forms and their pharmaceutical dosage forms as well as human plasma without significant interference of the pharmaceutical excipients or plasma components.