Practical and Science-Based Strategy for Establishing Acceptable Intakes for Drug Product
N-Nitrosamine Impurities.
Chem Res Toxicol 2022;
35:475-489. [PMID:
35212515 PMCID:
PMC8941624 DOI:
10.1021/acs.chemrestox.1c00369]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
![]()
The potential for N-nitrosamine impurities in
pharmaceutical products presents a challenge for the quality management
of medicinal products. N-Nitrosamines are considered
cohort-of-concern compounds due to the potent carcinogenicity of many
of the structurally simple chemicals within this structural class.
In the past 2 years, a number of drug products containing certain
active pharmaceutical ingredients have been withdrawn or recalled
from the market due to the presence of carcinogenic low-molecular-weight N,N-dialkylnitrosamine impurities. Regulatory
authorities have issued guidance to market authorization holders to
review all commercial drug substances/products for the potential risk
of N-nitrosamine impurities, and in cases where a
significant risk of N-nitrosamine impurity is identified,
analytical confirmatory testing is required. A key factor to consider
prior to analytical testing is the estimation of the daily acceptable
intake (AI) of the N-nitrosamine impurity. A significant
proportion of N-nitrosamine drug product impurities
are unique/complex structures for which the development of low-level
analytical methods is challenging. Moreover, these unique/complex
impurities may be less potent carcinogens compared to simple nitrosamines.
In the present work, our objective was to derive AIs for a large number
of complex N-nitrosamines without carcinogenicity
data that were identified as potential low-level impurities. The impurities
were first cataloged and grouped according to common structural features,
with a total of 13 groups defined with distinct structural features.
Subsequently, carcinogenicity data were reviewed for structurally
related N-nitrosamines relevant to each of the 13
structural groups and group AIs were derived conservatively based
on the most potent N-nitrosamine within each group.
The 13 structural group AIs were used as the basis for assigning AIs
to each of the structurally related complex N-nitrosamine
impurities. The AIs of several N-nitrosamine groups
were found to be considerably higher than those for the simple N,N-dialkylnitrosamines, which translates
to commensurately higher analytical method detection limits.
Collapse