A simple, selective, rapid, precise and economical reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography method has been developed for the determination of lapatinib in tablet using gemcitabine hydrochloride as an internal standard. Chromatography was carried out on an ODS C-18 RP column (4.6 mm i.d. ×250 mm) using a mixture of acetonitrile and water (50:50 v/v) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. The drug was monitored at 232 nm. The retention times for lapatinib and gemcitabine hydrochloride were found to be 4.25±0.05 and 6.10±0.05 min, respectively. The method produced linear responses in the concentration range of 2-60 μg/ml of lapatinib. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 0.265 and 0.884 μg/ml, respectively.

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