Synthesis and physicochemical characterization of the impurities of pemetrexed disodium, an anticancer drug.

A physicochemical characterization of the process-related impurities associated with the synthesis of pemetrexed disodium was performed. The possibility of pemetrexed impurities forming has been mentioned in literature, but no study on their structure has been published yet. This paper describes the development of the synthesis methods for these compounds and discusses their structure elucidation on the basis of two-dimensional NMR experiments and MS data. The identification of these impurities should be useful for the quality control during the production of the pemetrexed disodium salt.