Industry White Paper: Contemporary Opportunities and Challenges in Characterizing Crystallinity in Amorphous Solid Dispersions.

Members of the IQ Consortium ″Working Group on Characterization on Amorphous Solid Dispersions″ shares here a perspective on the analytical challenges, and limitations of detecting low levels of crystalline drug substance in amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs) and associated drug products. These companies aim to employ highly sensitive commercially available analytical technologies to guide development, support control strategies, and enable registration of quality products. We hope to promote consistency in development and registration approaches and guide the industry in development of "characterization best practices" in the interest of providing high quality products for patients. The first half of this perspective highlights the unique challenges of analytical methodologies to monitor crystalline drug substance in ASDs and their associated drug products. Challenges around use of limit tests, analyte spiking experiments, and method robustness are also underscored. The latter half describes the merits and limitations of the diverse analytical "toolbox" (such as XRPD, NIR and DSC), which can be readily applied during development and, in some cases, considered for potential application and validation in the commercial QC setting when necessary.

A high-temperature liquid chromatographic reactor approach for investigating the solvolytic stability of a pharmaceutical compound and an investigation of its retention behavior on a C18-modified zirconia stationary phase.

The solvolysis kinetics of a developmental active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) were investigated using a high temperature (HT)-HPLC reactor approach to determine whether it might be possible to use the technique to efficiently screen the relative stabilities of typical APIs (particularly those that are stable at the column temperatures achievable on most HPLC systems and over durations of less than 60 min-a reasonable upper limit for typical method run time). It was discovered that the on-column API degradation kinetics better obeyed a second-order model than a first-order one. Employing a newly developed mathematical treatment, the apparent activation energy for the process was determined to be 85.7+/-1.6 kJ/mol; the apparent frequency factor was found to be (3.9+/-0.4)x10(4) s(-1). The retention mechanism of the API on the C18-modified zirconia column (ZirChrom) Diamondbond-C18) was investigated using a van't Hoff analysis. It was discovered that the logarithm of the retention factor (following correction for the gradient elution of the assay method) exhibited a quadratic dependence on the reciprocal of the absolute temperature. While the retention was found to be predominantly enthalpically driven over the majority of temperatures investigated in this study (ranging from 40 to 200 degrees C), a regression fit of the curve predicted a maximum at approximately 20 degrees C, indicative of a transition from predominantly enthalpically controlled retention to a mainly entropically driven mechanism. A table summarizing the thermodynamic retention parameters at each experimental column temperature is provided. Finally, the preliminary application of the HT-HPLC reactor approach to the study of degradation kinetics of other APIs is discussed in terms of some unexpected findings obtained using the zirconia column.

Chromatographic selectivity study of 4-fluorophenylacetic acid positional isomers separation.

Unique properties of the fluorine atom stimulate widespread use and development of new organofluorine compounds in agrochemistry, biotechnology and pharmacology applications. However, relatively few synthetic methods exhibit a high degree of fluorination selectivity, which ultimately results in the presence of structurally related fluorinated isomers in the synthetic product. This outcome is undesirable from a pharmaceutical perspective as positional isomers possess different reactivity, biological activity and toxicity as compared to the desired product. It is advantageous to control positional isomers in the early stages of the synthetic process, as rejection and analysis of these isomers will likely become more difficult in later stages. The current work reports the development of a chromatographic analysis of 2- and 3-fluorophenylacetic acid positional isomer impurities in 4-fluorophenylacetic acid (4-FPAA), a building block in the synthesis of an active pharmaceutical ingredient. The method is employed as a part of a Quality by Design Approach to control purity of the starting material in order to eliminate the presence of undesirable positional isomers in the final drug substance. During method development, a wide range of chromatographic conditions and structurally related positional isomer probe molecules were exploited in an effort to gain insight into the specifics of the separation mechanism. For the systems studied it was shown that the choice of organic modifier played a key role in achieving acceptable separation. Further studies encompassed investigation of temperature influence on retention and selectivity of the FPAA isomers separation. Thermodynamic analysis of these data showed that the selectivity of the 2- and 4- fluorophenylacetic acids separation was dominated by an enthalpic process, while the selectivity of the 4- and 3-fluorophenylacetic acids separation was exclusively entropy driven (Delta(DeltaH degrees approximately 0). Studies of chromatographic behavior were complemented by solid state NMR experiments which provided valuable information regarding the relationship between stationary phase solvation and selectivity.

Effect of structure on the reduction potentials of films of constitutional isomers of iron-sulfur cluster core dendrimers.

The thermodynamic redox potentials of films of constitutional isomers of iron-sulfur cluster core dendrimers were measured and compared. It was determined that the primary structure of the dendrimer influences its reduction potential. Dendrimers containing so-called backfolded linkages were more difficult to reduce than their extended analogues. This behavior is rationalized by suggesting that the backfolded isomers pack more tightly around the iron-sulfur cluster, creating a more hydrophobic local microenvironment. Also, all of these molecules are easier to reduce in the film than in dimethyl formamide solution. The variation in redox potential between film and solution environment was compared to that of dendrimers of differing generations and correlated with the amount of hydrophobic dendron surrounding the cluster.

Infrared detection of a phenylboronic acid terminated alkane thiol monolayer on gold surfaces.

Polarization modulation infrared reflectance absorption spectroscopy (PM-IRRAS) and infrared reflectance absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS) have been used to characterize the formation of a self-assembled monolayer of N-(3-dihydroxyborylphenyl)-11-mercaptoundecanamide) (abbreviated PBA) on a gold surface and the subsequent binding of various sugars to the PBA adlayer through the phenylboronic acid moiety to form a phenylboronate ester. Vibrationally resonant sum frequency generation (VR-SFG) spectroscopy confirmed the ordering of the substituted phenyl groups of the PBA adlayer on the gold surface. Solution FTIR spectra and density functional theory were used to confirm the identity of the observed vibrational modes on the gold surface of PBA with and without bound sugar. The detection of the binding of glucose on the gold surface was confirmed in part by the presence of a C-O stretching mode of glucose and the observed O-H stretching mode of glucose that is shifted in position relative to the O-H stretching mode of boronic acid. An IR marker mode was also observed at 1734 cm(-1) upon the binding of glucose. Additionally, changes in the peak profile of the B-O stretching band were observed upon binding, confirming formation of a phenylboronate ester on the gold surface. The binding of mannose and lactose were also detected primarily through the IR marker mode at approximately 1736 to 1742 cm(-1) depending on the identity of the bound sugar.

Effect of the counterion on the rate of electron transfer in dendrimer films.

The electrochemical behavior of a film composed of a redox-active dendrimer was studied as a function of the type of counterion available during its reduction and reoxidation. The rate of permeation/migration of counterions into the film appeared to be the bottleneck to electron transfer through the film. Because the dendrimer is rather hydrophobic, increasing the hydrophobicity of the counterion increased the rate and extent of electron hopping within the films.

Structural effects on encapsulation as probed in redox-active core dendrimer isomers.

Three pairs of isomeric, iron-sulfur core dendrimers were prepared. Each isomer pair was distinguished by a 3,5-aromatic substitution pattern (extended) versus 2,6-aromatic substitution pattern (backfolded). Several observations were made that supported the hypothesis that the iron-sulfur cluster cores were encapsulated more effectively in the backfolded isomers as compared to their extended isomeric counterparts. The backfolded isomers were more difficult to reduce electrochemically, consistent with encapsulation in a more hydrophobic microenvironment. Furthermore, heterogeneous electron-transfer rates for the backfolded molecules were attenuated compared to the extended molecules. From diffusion measurements obtained by pulsed field gradient spin-echo NMR and chronoamperometry, the backfolded dendrimers were found to be smaller than the extended dendrimers. Comparison of longitudinal proton relaxation (T(1)) values also indicated a smaller, more compact dendrimer conformation for the backfolded architectures. These findings indicated that the dendrimer size was not the major factor in determining electron-transfer rate attenuation. Instead, the effective electron-transfer distance, as determined by the relative core position and mobility in a dendrimer, is most relevant for encapsulation.