A Validated RP-HPLC Method for Simultaneous Determination of Cefixime and Clavulanic Acid Powder in Pediatric Oral Suspension

A new reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method was developed and validated for the simultaneous estimation of pediatric oral powder formulation containing cefixime (CFX) and clavulanic acid (CVA). In this research, an analytical C18 (4.6 mm × 25 cm), 5 μm column was used for chromatographic separation with a mixture of methanol and water containing disodium hydrogen phosphate in ratio of 20 : 80 v/v as the mobile phase (pH 5.5 adjusted with orthophosphoric acid) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The detecting wavelength and run time were 220 nm and 15 min, respectively. Moreover, the column temperature was maintained at 30°C. The analytical method was validated prior to meeting the conditions specified by International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) and the parameters were specificity, linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), accuracy, precision, robustness, and solution stability. The calibration curve was found to be linear between the concentration ranges of 0.024–0.036 mg/mL and 0.032–0.048 mg/mL for CFX and CVA, respectively. Furthermore, the LOD and LOQ of CFX were 0.0008 and 0.0025 μg/mL, respectively. Accordingly, LOD and LOQ of CVA were 0.0021 and 0.0065 μg/mL, respectively. The accuracy of the optimized method was examined by recovery studies and the mean recovery was observed to be 98.96% and 99.05% for CFX and CVA, respectively, at 100% spiked level. The repeatability testing for both standard and sample solutions revealed that the method is precise within the acceptable range and the %RSD of the precision was <2%. In addition, the findings of specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision, robustness, LOD, LOQ, and solution stability studies of both CFX and CVA were within the criteria of acceptable limit as well.