Emtricitabine S-oxide (Emtricitabine sulfoxide) is a major degradation product of Emtricitabine. Emtricitabine is a potent nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor used for the treatment of HIV infection.
Emtricitabine, an antiretroviral agent is used to evaluate degradation pathways under different stress conditions in order to identify degradation products as prescribed by ICH guidelines. Emtricitabine degrades over 51%, 13% and 53% during acid, base and oxidative degradation respectively followed by formation of three major degradation products (Degradant-I to Degradant-III)[1].
References:
[1]. A Prakash, et al. Forced degradation study of emtricitabine for evaluation of genotoxic impurity in active pharmaceutical ingredient's (API) shelf life. World Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (2015), 4(7), 1909-1919.