Metastable drug polymorphs

There are other soUd states which sometimes confuse the measurement and definition of solubiUty. The dmg may crystaUize as a hydrate, i.e. under inclusion of water molecules. If the hydrate form is more stable than the pure form it may be difficult to measure the intrinsic solubility of the drug at all. Often drugs tend to precipitate in an amorphous form, often under the inclusion of impurities. As with metastable polymorphs, such amorphous precipitates may lead to erroneously high solubility measurements. CommerciaUy, drugs are often crystallized in salt form, e.g. as the hydrochloride salt, a cation with a chloride anion. In these co-crystallized salts, a much lower solubility than the intrinsic solubility will typi-... 

Fig. 5 Dissolution profiles obtained from the solubility determination of two polymorphic forms of the same drug substance. A is the stable form with solubility 31 mg/mL. B is the profile of the metastable form with solubility 46 mg/mL. This solubility (circles) is not achieved in many instances, and precipitation of the stable form occurs at a point beyond the solubility of A, and the trace becomes B. C is the hypothetical profile of the metastable form. 

Various drugs are known to exist in different polymorphic forms (e.g., cortisone and prednisolone). The rate of conversion from a metastable into the stable form is an important criteria to be considered with respect to the shelf life of a pharmaceutical product. Polymorphic changes have also been observed during the manufacture of steroid suspensions. When steroid powders are subjected to dry heat sterilization, subsequent rehydration of anhydrous steroid in the presence of an aqueous vehicle results in the formation of large, needle-like crystals. A similar effect may be... 

For a polymorphic drug, the polymorph obtained depends on the physical conditions, such as temperature, pressure, solvent, and the rate of desupersaturation. For a solvated drug, in addition to these conditions, the thermodynamic activity of the solvating solvent may also determine the solvate obtained. However, kinetic factors may sufficiently retard the crystallization of a stable form or the solid-state transition to the stable form that an unstable form may be rendered metastable. 

In its heyday, DTA analysis was very useful for the study of compound polymorphism and in the characterization of solvate species of drug compounds. It was used to deduce the ability of polymorphs to undergo thermal interconversion, providing information that could be used to deduce whether the system in question was monotropic or enantiotropic in nature. For instance, the enthalpies of fusion and transition were measured for different polymorphs of sulfathiazole and methylprednisolone [24]. The DTA thermograms shown in Fig. 4.5 demonstrate that Form-I is metastable with respect to Form-II, even... 

A metastable and more thermodynamically energetic polymorph of the drug... 

The magnitudes of the solubility of forms I and II of this drug varied signiLcantly in water, decyl alcohol, and dodecyl alcohol. However, their data showed that the solubility ratio was independent of solvent, but dependent on temperature. Figure 19.3 shows the data for these polymorphs in water The difference in slopes (indicating a difference in enthalpies of fusion) for the two polymorphs can be used to calculate a transition temperature, where both forms have the same physical stability The identity of the metastable form and the degree of solubility enhancement both depend on the temperature chosen for comparison. 

Many drugs can exist in more than one crystalline form, for example chloramphenicol palmitate, cortisone acetate, tetracyclines and sulphathiazole, depending on the conditions (temperature, solvent, time) under which crystallization occurs. This property is referred to as polymorphism and each crystalline form is known as a polymorph. At a given temperature and pressure only one of the crystalline forms is stable and the others are known as metastable forms. A metastable polymorph usually exhibits a greater aqueous solubility and dissolution rate, and thus greater absorption, than the stable polymorph. 

Shah, J.C. Chen, J.R. Chow, D. Metastable polymorph of etoposide with higher dissolution rate. Drug Dev. Ind. Pharm. 1999, 25 (1), 63-67. 

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