**6. Conclusion**

Development of the analytical methods for identification, purity evaluation and quantification of statin drugs has received a great deal of attention in the field of pharmaceutical analysis in recent years. This review includes trends and advances in separation methods developed for the analysis of statin molecules with different physical and chemical properties. The chapter surveys the application of chromatographic techniques for the determination of statins in pharmaceutical dosage forms and biological samples.

A Review of Current Trends and Advances in Analytical Methods for Determination of Statins: Chromatography and Capillary Electrophoresis 419

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1112.

Stability indicating methods and papers describing impurity profiling are discussed in this review. Special emphasis is given to sample preparation as unavoidable and delicate step in bioanalitical methods for quantification of statins and their metabolites. The hyphenated technique that incorporates the efficient separation using liquid chromatography and sensitive detection by mass spectrometry has become an indispensable tool for quantification of statins in biological fluids and pharmacokinetic studies. Methods describing simultaneous analysis of different statins as well as drugs in combined pharmaceutical products and other co-administered drugs in therapy of cardiovascular disease are also described. The application of capillary electrophoresis as alternative separation technique for statins is considered and compared with chromatographic methods.

The use of statin drugs has augmented in recent years and is expected to increase further in the years ahead because high cholesterol and cardiovascular diseases are being diagnosed more frequently. Therefore, the development of new analytical methods for commercially available statins as well as novel upcoming statin drugs will be a future challenging task for many analysts.
