forceddegradation
Forced degradation, also known as stress testing or accelerated stability testing, is a process used in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries to deliberately break down a drug substance or product under various stress conditions. The goal is to identify potential degradation pathways, characterize the resulting degradation products, and establish the intrinsic stability of the material. This information is crucial for understanding how a drug might behave under less extreme, real-world storage conditions and throughout its intended shelf life.
Common stress conditions include exposure to heat, humidity, light (photodegradation), oxidation, and acid or base hydrolysis.
The data obtained from forced degradation studies helps in selecting appropriate packaging materials, defining storage conditions,