Quantification of Axitinib After Oral and Intravenous Administration in Rats by UPLC-MS/MS: Application to the Pharmacokinetic Study

In this study, a rapid-resolution ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry separation method (UPLC-MS/MS) was developed for the determination of axitinib in rat plasma. The effective UPLC-MS/MS separation of the examined compounds was applied with a gradient mobile phase system consisting of 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile. The analysis was performed in less than 3 min with a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. Intra-and inter-assay precision values for replicate quality control samples were within 5.56% and accuracy was ranged from 94.86 to 108.08%. Assay recoveries of axitinib and IS were higher than 87.81%. Axitinib was stable in rat plasma. The validated assay was successfully applied to the quantification of axitinb in rat pharmacokinetic study. Furthermore, no notable matrix effect and staticism was observed for axitinib. The accurate and simple method we developed could be provided on the basis and applied to human pharmacokinetic study in the future.