Isolation and characterization of a potential process related impurity of phenazopyridine HCl by preparative HPLC followed by MS–MS and 2D-NMR spectroscopy

During the process development of phenazopyridine HCl bulk drug, a potential impurity was detected in the routine impurity profiles by HPLC. Using MS–MS and multidimensional NMR techniques, the trace level impurity was unambiguously identified to be 3-phenyl-5-phenylazo-pyridine-2,6-diamine after its isolation from phenazopyridine HCl by semi-preparative HPLC. The formation of the impurity was discussed. To our knowledge, it is a novel impurity not reported elsewhere.