Solid form changes during drug development: good, bad, and ugly case studies

Abstract The relevance of solid form in drug development has been well established over time. In order to fully understand drug properties, attention has been paid to solid state structure of drug molecules and their relationship to the drug formulation. While each drug developer has had their own strategies and workflows for screening and choosing solid forms of drug molecules, the industry is aware of instances where “the best laid plans” often go awry. This manuscript has summarized several case studies in development programs that display the “good, bad, and ugly” of solid form changes

Structure determination of the theophylline-nicotinamide cocrystal: a combined powder XRD, 1D solid-state NMR, and theoretical calculation study

The crystal structure of a powder pharmaceutical cocrystal, theophylline-nicotinamide (1 : 1) crystal complex, is determined for the first time by using a combination of X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), 1D solid state NMR, as well as density functional theory (DFT) calculations. With the aid of solid state NMR spectroscopy, a candidate structure can be determined from XRPD data by Rietveld refinement with acceptable residual variances. The structure was subjected to periodic geometry optimization, followed by NMR parameter calculations. The agreement between experimental and computed C-13 and N-15 NMR chemical shift values validates the refined structure as an accurate representation of the actual cocrystal structure. Intermolecular interactions existing in the cocrystal are further confirmed by the commonly used vibrational spectra. This study confirms that the straightforward synergistic approach offers a simple and credible way to solve the crystal structure of powder cocrystal samples