Warwick Analytical Services has published a technical article that describes a standard ICP methodology that has been developed to determine trace heavy metals in pharmaceutical products.
Metal catalysts and reagents used in the synthesis of pharmaceutical products can potentially result in trace levels of metals in the final product that can be toxic to human life.
The article describes how the traditional US Pharmacopeia standard method for determining heavy metals in pharma products is increasingly being viewed as insensitive, time consuming, labour intensive and not providing an adequate recovery of the elements being tested.
The author discusses the new ICP methodology for heavy metals testing and describes how it will eliminate the specificity issue of the traditional method, provide greater sensitivity down to part-per-billion (ppb) levels and evaluate drug samples for an additional 21 elements.
