Tailoring the use of excipients in bottom-up production of naproxen crystal suspensions via membrane technology.

Long-acting crystal suspensions of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) mostly comprised of an API, a suspension media (water) and excipients and provide sustained API release over time. Excipients are crucial for controlling particle size and to achieve the stability of the API crystals in suspension. A bottom-up process was designed to produce long-acting crystal suspensions whilst investigating the excipient requirements during the production process and the subsequent storage. PVP K30 emerged as the most effective excipient for generating stable naproxen crystals with the desired size of 1 to 15 µm, using ethanol as solvent and water as anti-solvent. Calculations, performed based on the crystal properties and assuming complete PVP K30 adsorption on the crystal surface, revealed lower PVP K30 requirements during storage compared to initial crystal generation. Consequently, a membrane-based diafiltration process was used to determine and fine-tune PVP K30 concentration in the suspension post-crystallization. A seven-stage diafiltration process removed 98 % of the PVP K30 present in the suspension thereby reducing the PVP-to-naproxen ratio from 1:2 to 1:39 without impacting the stability of naproxen crystals in suspension. This work provides insights into the excipient requirements at various production stages and introduce the membrane-based diafiltration for precise excipient control after crystallization.

Development of long-acting injectable suspensions by continuous antisolvent crystallization: An integrated bottom-up process.

Our present work elucidated the operational feasibility of direct generation and stabilization of long-acting injectable (LAI) suspensions of a practically insoluble drug, itraconazole (ITZ), by combining continuous liquid antisolvent crystallization with downstream processing (i.e., centrifugal filtration and reconstitution). A novel microchannel reactor-based bottom-up crystallization setup was assembled and optimized for the continuous production of micro-suspension. Based upon the solvent screening and solubility study, N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) was selected as the optimal solvent and an impinging jet Y-shaped microchannel reactor (MCR) was selected as the fluidic device to provide a reproducible homogenous mixing environment. Operating parameters such as solvent to antisolvent ratio (S/AS), total jet liquid flow rates (TFRs), ITZ feed solution concentration and the maturation time in spiral tubing were tailored to 1:9 v/v, 50 mL/min, 10 g/100 g solution, and 96 h, respectively. Vitamin E TPGS (0.5% w/w) was found to be the most suitable excipient to stabilize ITZ particles amongst 14 commonly used stabilizers screened. The effect of scaling up from 25 mL to 15 L was evaluated effectively with in situ monitoring of particle size distribution (PSD) and solid-state form. Thereafter, the suspension was subjected to centrifugal filtration to remove excess solvent and increase ITZ solid fraction. As an alternative, an even more concentrated wet pellet was reconstituted with an aqueous solution of 0.5% w/w Vitamin E TPGS as resuspending agent. The ITZ LAI suspension (of 300 mg/mL solid concentration) has the optimal PSD with a D10 of 1.1 ± 0.3 µm, a D50 of 3.53 ± 0.4 µm and a D90 of 6.5 ± 0.8 µm, corroborated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), as remained stable after 548 days of storage at 25 °C. Finally, in vitro release methods using Dialyzer, dialysis membrane sac were investigated for evaluation of dissolution of ITZ LAI suspensions. The framework presented in this manuscript provides a useful guidance for development of LAI suspensions by an integrated bottom-up approach using ITZ as model API.

(E,E)-N-(2,3,4,5,6-Penta-fluoro-benzyl-idene)-N-(3,4,5-trimeth-oxy-benzyl-idene)benzene-1,4-diamine.

The title compound, C(23)H(17)F(5)N(2)O(3), forms a layered centrosymmetric crystal structure in which C-H⋯F inter-actions are responsible for the formation of planar ribbons along [110], meth-oxy-meth-oxy (C-H⋯O) inter-actions for the formation of layers parallel to [[Formula: see text]13], and OCH(3)⋯π and C-F⋯π inter-actions for the stacking of these layers.

Conformational polymorphism of (E,E)-N,N'-bis(4-nitrobenzylidene)benzene-1,4-diamine.

Two polymorphs of (E,E)-N,N'-bis(4-nitrobenzylidene)benzene-1,4-diamine, C(20)H(14)N(4)O(4), (I), have been identified. In each case, the molecule lies across a crystallographic inversion centre. The supramolecular structure of the first polymorph, (I-1), features stacking based on π-π interactions assisted by weak hydrogen bonds involving the nitro groups. The second polymorph, (I-2), displays a perpendicular arrangement of molecules linked via the nitro groups, combined with weak C-H···O hydrogen bonds. Both crystal structures are compared with that of the carbon analogue (E,E)-1,4-bis[2-(4-nitrophenyl)ethenyl]benzene, (II).