Prevalidation and System Suitability

Prior to performing a formal validation, the analytical chemist should have performed some prevalidation during method development. The expectation is that a well-developed HPLC method should subsequently be validated with no major surprises or failures. Prior to validation, specificity and some degree of robustness should be demonstrated. In addition, some form of system suitability criteria will have been established. System suitability evaluates the capability of an HPLC system to perform a specific procedure on a given day. It is a quality check to ensure that the system functions as expected and that the generated data will be reliable. Only if the system passes this test should the analyst proceed to perform the specific analysis. System suitability can be based on resolution of two specified components, relative standard deviation, tailing factor, limit of quantitation or detection, expected retention times, number of theoretical plates, or a reference check. 

The accuracy of the method can be determined by performing recovery experiments or by comparison to another analytical method (such as titration, DSC, and PSA). Spiking experiments, where increasing amounts of an impurity are introduced into the sample and the accuracy of the result versus 

---