Detection and structure elucidation of the new degradation impurities in the pharmaceutical formulations of ruxolitinib hydrobromide.

New degradation impurities at m/z 327.15 and m/z 311.16 using gradient UHPLC method with UV detection and highly selective QDa mass detection were observed during the ruxolitinib hydrobromide (RUX.HBr) : excipient binary mixture degradation study. High mass resolution LC-MS and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques were employed to identify and fully characterize the degradation compounds. The degradation impurities were unambiguously identified as (R)-4-amino-6-(1-(2-cyano-1-cyclopentylethyl)-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)pyrimidine-5-carboxylic acid and (R)-3-(4-(6-amino-5-formylpyrimidin-4-yl)-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)-3-cyclopentylpropanenitrile and mechanism of their formation was proposed. It has been confirmed that the degradation products are formed in mixtures of RUX.HBr with some excipients in the presence of oxygen. Based on the forced degradation study, the chemically stable of pharmaceutical formulations were prepared to eliminate the formation of these impurities.