Cocrystal chemical stability

For pharmaceutical scientists, the value in cocrystals would be if such materials would be superior active pharmaceutical ingredients relative to the drug substance itself. This possibility has been studied for the carbamazepine-saccharin cocrystal, where its performance characteristics were compared with the marketed form of carbamazepine [46]. It was learned that the physical and chemical stability of formulations containing the carbamazepine-saccharin cocrystal product were similar to those of carbamazepine in the marketed product, and comparative bioavailability studies demonstrated that the cocrystal was a viable alternative drug substance to the anhydrous drug form used in the conventional solid dose forms. 

While establishing molecular networks for cocrystal design and determining crystal structures is very important, the value of cocrystals of pharmaceutical components lies in the ability to tailor the functionality of materials. In contrast to polymorphs that have the same chemical composition, cocrystals do not. As such, one would expect that with cocrystals one could introduce greater changes in material properties than with polymorphs. Properties that relate to pharmaceutical performance and that can be controlled by cocrystal formation include melting point, solubility, dissolution, chemical stability, hygroscopicity, mechanical properties, and bioavailability. The cocrystals for which pharmaceutical properties have been studied are few and some of these are presented below. Clearly further research in this area is needed. 

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