A practical guide to pharmaceutical polymorph screening & selection

Abstract

Prevalence and importance of polymorphism occurring in pharmaceutical compounds are well recognized. It is of great importance to prepare and select the right form from the beginning during drug discovery and development. This review introduces the basic concepts of “What is polymorphism?”, addresses a fundamental question of “Why do polymorphs form?”, and provides practical guidelines of “How to prepare polymorphs?” “How to evaluate the relative thermodynamic stability between polymorphs?”, and “How to analyze polymorphs?”. Moreover, case studies of pharmaceutically important polymorphs are provided.

Keywords

• Polymorphs
• Polymorph screening
• Polymorph selection
• Polymorph preparation