Pharmaceutical cocrystals comprise one active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and at least one small molecule excipient coformer. While solvent evaporation and mechanochemistry are the preferred methods for their synthesis, some cocrystals are known to form spontaneously at ambient conditions when powders of input materials are mixed—a process not yet fully understood. Aqueous humidity is also known to accelerate spontaneous cocrystal formation. We report here the extent of spontaneous cocrystallization for 14 cocrystal systems, at four levels of humidity. The binary cocrystals in our study consist of a model API (caffeine, theophylline, nicotinamide) and a small chain diacid coformer (oxalic acid, malonic acid, maleic acid, fumaric acid, succinic acid, glutaric acid). The spontaneous cocrystal formation was monitored ex situ by powder X-ray diffraction over several weeks. Our results show cocrystal formation in all 14 systems to varying extent and are consistent with literature reports that higher humidity correlates with more rapid cocrystal formation. We find that cocrystals containing smaller coformers often form faster. Based on our findings, we identify several cocrystals as candidates for future study.
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The formation and stability of fluoxetine HCl cocrystals investigated by multicomponent milling
Competitive milling (CM) and stability milling (SM) mechanochemical reactions are used to comprehensively assess the relative thermodynamic stabilities and cocrystallization affinities of three pharmaceutical cocrystals (PCCs) of fluoxetine HCl ( X ) with three different pharmaceutically acceptable coformers (PACs, i.e. , benzoic acid ( B ), fumaric acid ( F ), and succinic acid ( S )). CM reactions, which involve milling X in the presence of two or more different PACs, were used to determine cocrystallization affinities, whereas SM reactions, which involve milling a PCC of X with a different coformer, were used to determine relative thermodynamic stabilities. In certain cases, SM reactions exhibited a remarkable solid-state exchange of coformers, yielding new cocrystalline forms. 35 Cl (spin I = 3/2) SSNMR is used as the primary probe of the products of CM and SM reactions, providing a reliable means of identifying and quantifying chloride ions in unique hydrogen bonding environments in each reaction mixture ( 13 C SSNMR spectra and pXRD patterns are used in support of these data). On the basis of these reactions and data, the PAC cocrystallization affinities with X are B > F ≈ S (most to least preferred), and the PCC stabilities are XB > X 2 F ≈ X 2 S (most to least preferred), corresponding to enthalpies of cocrystallization ranked as Δ H CCXB < ≈ . PAC affinities and PCC stabilities were found to be the same for products of analogous slow evaporation experiments and mechanochemical reactions with extended milling times ( i.e. , 90 minutes). Preliminary plane-wave DFT-D2* calculations are supportive of cocrystal formation; however, challenges remain for the quantification of relative enthalpies of cocrystallization. This work demonstrates the great potential of CM and SM reactions for providing pathways to the rational design, discovery, and manufacture of new cocrystalline forms of APIs.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2221086
- PAR ID:
- 10423747
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- CrystEngComm
- Volume:
- 25
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 1466-8033
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 213 to 224
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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