Validation methodologies of near infrared spectroscopy methods in pharmaceutical applications

As any analytical methods, a mandatory step at the end of the development of a near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) method is the validation. This step enables to give enough guarantees that each future results coming from the application of the method in routine will be closed enough to the true value. However, from the literature, a minority of NIRS methods are thoroughly validated despite of the guidelines published by different group and regulatory authorities to help analyst to adequately decide if his method can be considered as valid. In this context, the aim of this review is to offer a critical overview of the different validation methodologies applied to assess the validity of quantitative methods using near infrared spectroscopy used in the field of pharmacy.