NEW COMBINED PROCESS FOR THE PURIFICATION OF VANCOMYCIN HYDROCHLORIDE

Abstract: The present invention discloses a new process for the purification of vancomycin hydrochloride by combining preparative chromatography on a silica gel column and the precipitation with ethanol from a salt-water-ethanolic solution without intermediary filtering, whereby the chromatographic purity of the product is improved. The chromatography is carried out on a column containing a silica gel stationary phase and a water mobile phase at defined pH, mobile phase flow and temperature as well as the amount and concentration of vancomycin hydrochloride. The process is distinguished by the yield and chromatographic purity of the obtained product of about 93 % area. Vancomycin hydrochloride purified according to the present invention is useful for peroral as well as parenteral administration since the portion of impurities it contains is for one third smaller than in hitherto available products.

Description: New Combined Process for the Purification of Vancomycin Hydrochloride Technical Field International Patent Classification: C 07 K 9/10; C 07 K 3/20; C 07 K 3/24; C 07 K 3/28 The present invention relates to a new process for the purification of vancomycin hydrochloride, which combines the preparative chromatography on a silica gel column containing an alkaline water-methanol mobile phase and the precipitation with ethanol from a salt-water-ethanolic solution, whereby improved chromato¬ graphic purity of the product is achieved, making it available both for peroral and parenteral administration. Vancomycin is a tricyclic amphoteric glycopeptide antibiotic in a salt (hydrochloride) form having the empirical formula C 66 H 75 C1 2 N 9 0 24 .HC1 and the molecular weight of 1.486. The preparation of vancomycin by fermentation of the microorganisms Amycolatopsis orientalis (previously Nocardia orientalis) is described in more detail in US patent 3,067,099 (filed in 1955) and in WO 91/08,300 (filed in 1990). Lyophilized vancomycin hydrochloride has an off-white colour and with water it forms a clear solution having a pH between 2.5 and 4.5. Vancomycin hydrochloride is particularly used for the initial treatment of serious or severe infections caused by staphylococci resistant against /8-lactam antibiotics as well as in patients who are penicillin-sensitive or do not respond to penicillins and cephalosporines. Vancomycin hydrochloride is commercially available in oral (solution and capsules/ pulvules) and parenteral (sterile intravenous solution in vials) forms. Oral use of vancomycin hydrochloride is only allowed in treating staphylococcal enterocolitis where the parenteral form is not effective. For all other types of indica¬ tions only parenteral use is relevant. Vancomycin hydrochloride alone or in combination with other aminoglycosides i also useful in treating staphylococcal, streptococcal, enterococcal or diphtheria endocarditis. To reduce the possibility of side effects a high chromatographic purity of antibiotic is very important in some kinds of their usage, which cannot be achieved by hithert existing purification processes. By the process according to the present invention th impurity portion in the sample has been reduced for one third. Technical Problem In the preparation of vancomycin consisting of a multistage process involving fer mentation, isolation and various means of purification, sometimes a product with more distinctive colour and with an unpleasant odour is obtained and also the yiel and purity are reduced, which cannot be improved even if the process is repeate several times. Since vancomycin represents a very interesting and valuable product, a constant nee for new processes for effective isolation and purification thereof exists. By the use o the most hitherto known processes and also by a multiple repetition of the processes the portion of several kinds of impurities cannot be reduced so as to obtain vanco mycin with an improved purity grade. Therefore it is the aim of present invention to prepare vancomycin hydrochloride useful both for peroral and parenteral administration of at least an equal or bette quality as found in other commercially available products. xPriorArt From patent and other literature a number of methods for the preparation o glycopeptide antibiotics from the fermentation medium as well as for the purificatio of fermentation products are known, which include precipitation processes usin NaOH (EP 323,150, US 5,037,652, JP 5,244,964), formation of phosphates (E 145,484) or complexes with peptides (US 4,667,024) or imidazole (US 4,868,285) as well as processes for adsorption onto different polymer resins (US 4.440,753, US 4,845,194, US 4,874,843, US 5,149,784, WO 91/08,300, US 5,258,495 or WO 93/21,207). US patent 4,868,285 cites the precipitation of vancomycin hydrochloride with ethanol following the dissolution of the complex with imidazole. WO 91/08,300 discloses a process for microbiological preparation of vancomycin an¬ tibiotic via aerobic fermentation by the use of several cultivation strains and cultures. The isolation of vancomycin may be performed to the manner known "per se" or by a process comprising ion exchange chromatography for the separation of the van¬ comycin antibiotic, concentration by the use of reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration. US patent 5,235,037 discloses a process particularly suitable for vancomycin, which is based on the isolation of vancomycin via precipitation from a water solution having a pH 5-9 by adding different anorganic salts such as NaCl (5-10 %), at a temperature of 20-25°C, the precipitation taking place in a period of 16-24 hours at a concentra¬ tion of vancomycin of 5-200 g/1. Subsequently, the product is filtered. This process is useful in any stage of the preparation of vancomycin either for the complete fermen¬ tation broth or for additional purifying of partly purified (by filtration and adsorption chromatography) vancomycin after elution with a cation exchange polymer resin con¬ sisting of styrene and divinylbenzene. A maximum yield is obtained already at diluted water solutions (5-6 g/1), however, at concentrations of 100-150 g/1 a better filtration is achieved. This patent also states the removal of vancomycin from the obtained precipitate by a repeated dissolution of the precipitate in a water HC1 solution (i.e. at pH=2) and precipitation by the addition of a suitable "non-solvent" for vancomycin such as ethanol or isopropanol. The product is a highly pure vancomycin in the form of a hydrochloride salt (the purity grade significantly depends upon the purity of the starting solution). The filtration runs readily and the obtained addition salt is useful for parenteral formulations. Technical Solution The manufacturers of the antibiotics are constantly faced with the need to ensure a high yield of a product having high chromatographic purity. Therefore the improve¬ ment of the purification process for vancomycin hydrochloride by a combination of preparative chromatography on a silica gel column and of the precipitation wit ethanol from a salt-water-solution according to the present invention represents a essential improvement of the prior art methods, since the impurity portion in th resulting substance is lower than or, at the most, equal to the one of the purest com mercially available sample known hitherto. The aim of the present invention is to improve the purification process for van comycin hydrochloride from the stage of the partly purified concentrate on by com bining preparative chromatography on a silica gel column and the precipitation wit ethanol from a salt-water-ethanolic solution. The whole process is carried out as fol lows: The fermentation broth with the flow rate 0.5-lm 3 /h is continuously pumped fro the fermenter to the microfiltration device, wherein the solid portion of the broth i concentrated and washed with demineralized water flowing with the rate of 0.8-1. m 3 /h, whereby the solid protion is separated from the permeate solution containin the majority of vancomycin. A constant value of pH = 7 of the permeate solution i maintained by a continuous addition of HC1. The yield of microfiltration is 90-95%. Then the adsorption of vancomycin at pH = 7 from the permeate solution afte microfiltration onto 2.5 m 3 of Amberlite XAD 16 acrylate resin (20 g of vancomyci can be bound to 1 1 of the resin) at a flow rate of 0.1-2.5 m 3 /h is performed. Sub sequently the coloured impurities and anorganic salts are washed out with demineral ized water under the addition of 50% NaOH in an amount adequate to adjust the p to 10 at a flow rate of 5-10 m 3 /h, followed by washing with 20% alkaline methano (50%) NaOH is added to adjust the pH to 10) at a flow rate of 2.5 m 3 /h. Then the elu tion of vancomycin from the resin is started by using 20% acidic methanol (aceti acid is added) at a flow rate of 1 m 3 /h and at a pH of 2.7-2.8. By reverse osmosis the removal of 20% acidic methanol from the combined eluates i performed in order to reduce their volume from 8-15 m 3 to 0.8 m 3 . HC1 is added to the concentrate under washing with 15 m 3 of demineralized wate during the reverse osmosis (to maintain the pH at 2.7-3.0) and then it is concentrate to 450 1. In this process the displacement of acetate aniones by chloride aniones oc curs, resulting in the conversion of vancomycin into vancomycin hydrochloride Acetic acid used in the elution is washed out over a membrane. The concentrat obtained from reverse osmosis is cooled and active carbon (300 g per 1 kg of vanco¬ mycin) is added thereto. After stirring for 8-12 hours the obtained suspension is fil¬ tered on a filter press and washed with demineralized water. A discoloured product with a concentration of 6-12% is obtained. Vancomycin hydrochloride dissolved in water is applied onto a preparative column containing a silica gel stationary phase and an alkaline water/methanolic mobile phase. However, to achieve a sucessful purification it is very important to select an aprop- priate flow rate of the mobile phase through the column and its pH value as well as the temperature in every stage of the purification on the column. Namely, at a low flow rate, the presence of vancomycin hydrochloride in the alkaline mobile phase is longer, which results in a greater possibility for its decomposition, whereas at a high flow rate the kinetics of purification is not appropriate. The elution of vancomycin at a too low pH value occurs slower, whilst at a too high pH value rapid elution of vancomycin along with other newly formed impurities occurs. The product obtained from the column is separated into two fractions by the use of a UV detector: Fraction Cone, of vancomycin.HCl Chromatographic purity (area) main above = 1.5 g/1 mean 93 % side up to « 1.5 g/1 up to 90 % The greatest stability of vancomycin hydrochloride exists at a pH value between 2.5 and 5.5, but not in an alkaline medium, therefore it is neccesary to acidify the main fraction to pH = 3-5 with diluted (5%) HCl (neutralization of ammonium hydrogen carbonate). The other possibility is a substitution of ammonium cations with hydrogen cations by ion exchange. Thereafter the following stages are performed: an increase of vancomycin hydrochloride concentration to about 50 g/1 by reverse osmosis; depyrogenation of the concentrate by ultrafiltration; diafiltration (removal of formed NH 4 C1) by reverse osmosis simultaneously with concentrating to a final concentration of about 100 g/1 at a pH of about 3; discoloration with active carbon (10-15% with regard to vancomycin hydro¬ chloride) under cool conditions; preparation of a solid product by lyophilization in a spray dryer or by precipitation. By purification on a silica gel column a chromatographic purity of vancomycin hydrochloride in main fraction of about 93% area is achieved, the other coloured im¬ purities are removed e.g. by the use of active carbon. By this process the portion of the majority of impurities is reduced for more than 40%. Since in side fractions (content of vancomycin hydrochloride up to about 1.5 g/1 and chromatographic purity up to 90% area), owing to their great portion of impurities, it is not possible to continue the purification by chromatography, additionally, the precipitation with ethanol from a salt-water-ethanolic solution is introduced and sub¬ sequently the product is repeatedly purified by preparative chromatography on a silica gel column. Side fractions obtained by purification of vancomycin hydrochloride on silica gel column are acidified to pH ~ 3, then desalted in the reverse osmosis and con¬ centrated to a concentration of 8% with regard to vancomycin hydrochloride. To this solution an equal amount by volume of ethanol and of 10-20% NaCl with regard to the amount of 8% vancomycin solution is added. From the newly obtained solution vancomycin hydrochloride is precipitated with a threefold amount of ethanol with regard to the used amount. The obtained suspension is cooled and filtered. The product filters well. The discoloured concentrated solution of vancomycin hydrochloride is dried in a spray dryer at a temperature of the inlet air of 115-130°C and the temperature of the outlet air of 85±5°C. Usually, the content of water in vancomycin hydrochloride is above 4%, therefore it is additionally dried in a rotation vacuum dryer at a tempera¬ ture of 45-50°C to obtain a dry solid product. At the precipitation with ethanol from the salt-water-ethanolic solution, the filtration of the precipitate occurs easier and more rapidly under an increased (improved) chromatographic purity, whose percentage of increase depends upon the starting chromatographic purity (inverse proportionality) and the type of impurities. Chromatographic purity of the product after column chromatography is increased to about 93%. The portion of the majority of impurities is decreased for more than 40%. The filtered precipitate can be: a) desalted in reverse osmosis or by ion exchanger and repeatedly applied on a silica gel column or b) desalted and lyophilized for bulk by the addition of 12% of ethanol to the most in order to obtain the final product. The total yield of the purification of the main and side fractions applied to the column is up to 80%. By the process of the present invention there is obtained vancomycin hydrochloride having such a chromatographic purity that it can be used for peroral and parenteral administration. The present invention is illustrated but in no way limited by the following two ex¬ amples. Example 1 Chromatographic purification of vancomycin hydrochloride on silica gel column The main fraction of vancomycin hydrochloride is purified by preparative chromato¬ graphy under the following parameters: vancomycin hydrochloride: concentration 77 g/1; pH = 2.85; permeability of 5% solu¬ tion T 405 = 57.3%; column size: 30 x 80 cm; stationary phase: silica gel, particle size 100-200 μm having 6 nm pores; ratio of vancomycin to silica gel by weight: 1:100 mobile phase: aqueous (0.35% NH 4 HC0 3 in 7% methanol); flow rate: 301/h; temperature: 15°C. The deposit was dissolved in 3.5 1 of demineralized water, then applied onto the column and subjected to chromatography. The main fraction was selected by the use of UV detector: 120 1 with the content of 1.82 g/1 and chromatographic purity 93.3 % area. The yield was 80%. Example 2 Purification of vancomycin hydrochloride by the precipitation method from salt- water-ethanolic solution The side fractions of vancomycin hydrochloride were also purified by precipitation with ethanol from salt-water-ethanolic solution. 10 g of vancomycin hydrochloride having a 80% content and chromatographic purity 83,6% area was dissolved in water, thereto water q.s. ad volumen 100 ml was added. For the purpose of salting out, 10 g of NaCl and 150 ml of absolute ethanol were added and it was stirred until the solution was clarified. Another 250 ml of absolute ethanol were added thereto and the obtained precipitate was left to stand overnight at +5°C and then filtered. Vancomycin hydrochloride was desalted on a silica gel column (45 x 75 cm) and an amount of 6 1 was applied twice. 8.7 g of a product with a content of 65.7% and a chromatographic purity of 90.3% area were obtained. Yield: 71.4 %.

Claims: Claims 1. A new process for the purification of antibiotics, characterized in that it combines preparative chromatography on a silica gel column containing a water mobile phase and precipitation with ethanol from a salt-water-ethanolic solution for side fractions, which comprises the following stages: a) concentrating the combined side fractions of the antibiotic having concentra¬ tions up to about 1.5 g/1 by reverse osmosis; b) salting out, which includes dissolution in demineralized water at room tem¬ perature, addition of NaCl and stirring to achieve the dissolution of the salt and the salting out of the antibiotic; c) addition of ethanol to the resulting suspension at room temperature to cause first the dissolution of the salted-out antibiotic and a further addition of ethanol (totally a fourfold amount of water) to initiate the precipitation of the antibiotic: d) the cooling of the obtained suspension to about 5°C and centrifugation; e) desalting of the antibiotic on a silica gel column and continuing the process as used for the main fraction. 2. A process according to claim 1, characterized in that the final product is prepared by the precipitation from a salt-water-ethanolic solution. 3. A process according to claim 2, characterized in that the final product is dried in a spray dryer. 4. A process according to claim 2, characterized in that the final product is prepared by lyophilization from the ethanolic solution of the antibiotic. 5. A process according to claim 4, characterized in that the lyophilization is carried out by the addition of 12% of ethanol at the most. 6. A process according to claim 1, characterized in that it is used for the purifica¬ tion of vancomycin and vancomycin hydrochloride. 7. A process according to claim 1, characterized in that the concentration of the antibiotic applied to the column and prior to the beginning of the salting out is from about 50 to about 120 g/1. 8. A process according to claim 7, characterized in that the concentration of the antibiotic applied to the column and prior to the beginning of the salting out is about 80 g/1. 9. A process according to claim 1, characterized in that the ratio by weight of the antibiotic to silica gel on the column is about 1:100. 10. A process according to claim 1, characterized in that the mobile phase is 0.35% of NH 4 HC0 3 in 7% methanol. 11. A process according to claim 1, characterized in that the mobile phase flow is between about 20 1/min and about 1001/min. 12. A process according to claim 1, characterized in that the pH of the mobile phase is between about 7.9 and about 8.5. 13. A process according to claim 1, characterized in that the temperature in the column is about 15°C. 14. A process according to claim 1, characterized in that the salting out is per¬ formed by the use of about 10 to about 20% of NaCl with regard to water. 15. A process according to claim 1, characterized in that the salting out is per¬ formed by the use of about 15% of NaCl with regard to water. 16. A process according to claim 1, characterized in that an antibiotic of such a purity is obtained that it can be used for peroral or parenteral administration.

Inventors: PFLAUM ZLATKO, TURKALJ ROBERT, PFLAUM, ZLATKO, TURKALJ, ROBERT
Applicants: LEK TOVARNA FARMACEVTSKIH, PFLAUM ZLATKO, TURKALJ ROBERT, LEK, TOVARNA FARMACEVTSKIH IN KEMICNIH IZDELKOV,, PFLAUM, ZLATKO, TURKALJ, ROBERT
Application year: 1996
Main classification: C07K9
IPC codes: C07K1, C07K9