Famciclovir

Chemical Name

2-[2-(2-Amino-9H-purin-9-yl)ethyl]trimethylene diacetate

Other Names

Ancivin, Famvir, Oravir

Method

Lotfy et al. described an HPLC method for the analysis of famciclovir in

tablets. A liquid chromatographic system consisting of an Agilent model

G1310A isocratic pump, a model G1314A UV detector and a Rheodyne

model 7725 injector with a 20-μL loop was used. The stationary phase was

an Agilent Zorbax C18 column (150 × 4.6 mm, 10 μm particle size). The

mobile phase consisted of methanol and 50 mM dibasic potassium

phosphate buffer (25:75, vol/vol, pH 3.0) and was isocratically delivered at

1 mL/min. UV detection was performed at 304 nm. The injection volume

was 20 μL. Under these conditions, the retention time of famciclovir was

about 2.9 minutes.

A stock solution of famciclovir at 1 mg/mL was prepared in methanol.

Standards were prepared by diluting this stock solution with mobile phase.

For samples, 20 tablets were weighed and powdered. A portion of this

powder equivalent to 100 mg famciclovir was transferred into a 100-mL

volumetric flask, mixed with 75 mL of methanol, stirred for 30 minutes,

filled to volume, filtered, diluted appropriately, and assayed.

This method was demonstrated to be stability indicating by an accelerated

Form Molecular Formula MW CAS

Famciclovir C14H19N5O4 321.3 104227-87-4

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degradation study. The drug was refluxed in 2 M sodium hydroxide solution

for 15 minutes. The degradation product did not interfere with the

determination of famciclovir.

A calibration curve for famciclovir was constructed over the range 20 to

240 μg/mL. Its correlation coefficient was 0.9996. The recovery of the drug

from tablets was 99.9%.

Reference

Lotfy H M, Abosen MM A, El-Bardicy M G. Stability-indicating

methods for the determination of famciclovir in the presence of its

alkaline-induced degradation product. Drug Test Anal, 2010; 2: 188–

99.

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