Packed Column Supercritical Fluid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry for Drug Discovery Applications

In the last five years, the acceptance and implementation of packed-column supercritical fluid chromatography–mass spectrometry (pSFC–MS) to drug discovery applications has gained momentum. This article describes the pros and cons of pSFC–MS and attempts to demonstrate its broad applicability to such fields as high-throughput analysis, purity assessment, structure characterization and purification. Finally, an outlook for the future of this technique is presented.

Introduction The analytical philosophy in drug discovery has changed drastically in recent years. Enhancing analytical capacity and efficiency is no longer the top priority as more and more effort is directed at generating high-quality data within a minimal time frame. Effectively delivering high-quality information in a high-throughput environment1 is, therefore, of utmost importance. For more than a decade now, liquid chromatography– mass spectrometry (LC–MS) has been used predominantly in the drug discovery analytical arena for purity assessment, purification and structure analysis in a high-throughput manner. Recently, however, packed-column supercritical fluid chromatography (pSFC) has become more attractive because it offers high speed, unique selectivity and aqueous-free purification capabilities — important requirements in the drug discovery process. Consequently, pSFC is being revamped as another powerful complementary technique to LC.

View Full Article