What are the Types of Impurities in Pharmaceutical Drug Substances?

What are the different types of impurities in pharmaceutical drugs? Keep reading to know more about the types of impurities for a better understanding.

The definition of impurity for pharmaceutical drug substances is known to be a foreign particle, affecting the purity of the substance. For pharmaceutical substances, impurities can be of many types, some of which are briefly discussed below for an improved understanding of the matter.

Impurities in substances can affect in various ways, some of the most common ways are, propagating adverse and toxic reactions, and it can ensure steady deterioration of chemical activity, or cause issues and incompatibility with the other substances in the compound. There are various pharmaceutical impurity standards which must be maintained, for the purest products for the best results.

Types of impurities
Different types of impurities can affect the chemical reaction or the compound; the three main types of impurities are organic, inorganic, and residual solvents for such pharmaceutical drug substances, which have been explained below.

Organic impurities
Organic impurities can arise from starting materials, by-products, intermediates, degradation products reagents, ligands, and catalysts.

Inorganic impurities 
Inorganic impurities can arise from reagents, ligands and catalysts, residual metals or heavy metals, inorganic salts, filter aids, charcoal, and other materials.

Residual solvents
Residual solvents are organic volatile chemicals that are used or produced during the manufacturing process of pharmaceutical drugs. In such a case, the Class 1 solvents should be avoided; Class 2 solvents should be limited, and lastly, the Class 3 solvents should have low toxic potential.

The impurities can come from a variety of sources, and also different phases in the chemical processes; most of the impurities are considered to be the characteristics of the manufacturing process, for synthetic production. There are different ways of synthesizing the same drug and oftentimes, the same product can have different reactions when sourced differently.

It will be prudent to note that the inorganic and residual solvents are limited, easily identifiable, with well-known toxicity and physiological variations. The situation is different for organic impurities; the drugs, which are produced in a multi-step synthesis process, can result in several variations of the type of impurities. The impurities can change, depending on the choice of methods, the starting materials, and its purity, isolations, purifications, and storage as well, making it very difficult to predict or understand the toxicity of the same. ICH guidelines, therefore, dictate and set standard limits, above which it is mandatory to identify the types of impurity present. 

Therefore, these are the main types of impurities that numerous pharmaceutical impurities suppliers work with and ensure they abide by the set standards for successful identification. They use a variety of protocols to deal with these impurities so that the resultant drug is contaminant-free.


Simson Pharma Limited is a leading company in the pharmaceutical arena; also, manufacturers and suppliers of pharmaceutical reference materials. 

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