European Pharmacopoeia Publishes Chemometrics Chapter

The European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & Healthcare (EDQM) announced on Jan. 25, 2016 the publication of a new chapter in the European Pharmacopoeia Supplement 8.7. “Chemometric methods applied to analytical data” (5.21) introduces the use of chemometric techniques for processing analytical data sets.

The chapter provides good chemometric practice guidelines and requirements and offers a selection of established, most used chemometric methods. Included in chapter 5.21 are an introduction to chemometric methods; good chemometric practice including figures of merit, implementation steps, data considerations, and maintenance; an assessment and validation of chemometric methods; a description of important chemometric techniques; and a glossary.

The agency defines chemometrics, in a press release, “as the chemical discipline that uses mathematical and statistical methods to design optimal measurement procedures and to provide maximum chemical information by analyzing chemical data. It mainly consists of multivariate modeling techniques that result in empirical mathematical models used for the prediction of properties. It helps to structure data sets and to recognize hidden relationships within the system.” EDQM hopes the chapter will encourage the use of chemometric methods for evaluating data generated by near-infrared, Raman, mass, and other spectroscopic methods, as well as data from liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. 

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