Solvent dependent 4-aminosalicylic acid-sulfamethazine co-crystal polymorph control.

Despite polymorphism of crystalline active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) being a common phenomenon, reports on polymorphic co-crystals are limited. As polymorphism can vastly affect API properties, controlling polymorph generation is crucial. Control of the polymorph nucleation through the use of different solvents during solution crystallization has been used to obtain a desirable crystal polymorph. There have been two reported polymorphic forms of the 4-aminosalicylic acid-sulfamethazine co-crystals. These forms were found to have different thermodynamic stabilities. However, the control of co-crystal polymorph generation using preparation parameter manipulation has never been reported. The aim of this study was to establish the effect of different solvent parameters on the formation of different co-crystal polymorphic forms. Selection of the solvents was based on Hansen Solubility Parameters (HSPs) as solvents with different solubility parameters are likely to interact differently with APIs, ultimately affecting co-crystallization. Eight solvents with different HSPs were used to prepare co-crystals by solvent evaporation at two different temperatures. Through characterization of the co-crystals, a new polymorph has been obtained. The hydrogen bond acceptability seemed to affect the co-crystal form obtained more than the hydrogen bond donation ability. Furthermore, the use of HSPs can be utilized as an easy calculation method in screening and design of co-crystals.

Reliability of the Hansen solubility parameters as co-crystal formation prediction tool.

Pharmaceutical co-crystals present an opportunity to improve the solubility of conventional active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Despite advances in co-crystal screening, the rational design of even the chemically simplest co-crystals remains challenging. Hansen solubility parameters (HSPs) have previously been used as a tool to predict co-crystal formation using only the chemical structure. The aim of this study was to validate the use of HSPs as a tool to predict co-crystal formation, analyse its limitations and examine the previously set Δδ inclusion cut-off value. A total of 109 co-formers of carbamazepine, caffeine and theophylline were used as a training set. Sixteen different descriptors were examined. An additional 72 co-formers of piroxicam and nicotinamide were used to test the methods and new cut-off values. The established cut-off value (8.18 MPa0.5) despite being similar to the previously reported value (7 MPa0.5), offered no real advantage over the previously reported value. Our results suggest the use of the modified radius (Ra) method of calculating the solubility difference, which had higher sensitivity of 90% compared to 86% for the previously reported method and cut-off value to indicate co-crystal formation as well as a lower miss and false omission rates.