Comparison of Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Powder X-ray Diffraction, and Solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy for Measuring Crystallinity in Amorphous Solid Dispersions - Application to Drug-in-polymer Solubility.

The widespread use of amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs) dictates that analytical methods are required to accurately quantify crystallinity and characterize crystals formed in order to help design a stable ASD. Current crystallinity quantitation methods are limited to ASDs of moderate drug loadings, single polymorphs, and fast crystallization kinetics. The ability of multiple differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SSNMR) techniques were compared for quantifying crystallinity in ASDs in varying conditions. Determining crystallinity by DSC is limited by its ability to measure Tg or heat of fusion. PXRD was relatively robust in determining crystalline and amorphous ratios for drug-polymer systems in the absence of other excipients. SSNMR provides both quantitative information and reveal how crystal quality changes with crystallization conditions and helps to explain the failure of DSC methods. The results of five different methods using three techniques were directly applied to measure drug-in-polymer solubility with four agreeing well with the literature. PXRD and SSNMR are therefore proposed as alternative methods to quantify crystallinity and predict drug-in-polymer solubility when DSC methods do not work. In-situ and ex-situ annealing was also compared, and equivalent crystallinity data was acquired.

Quantification of Monomer Units in Insoluble Polymeric Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Using Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy I: Patiromer.

Although extensive precautions are taken to limit batch-to-batch variation in pharmaceutical manufacturing, differences between lots may still exist, particularly in complex formulations. When polymerization is used in the production process, the potential for varying chain lengths and incorporation of different monomers increases the likelihood of batch-to-batch variation. This poses a significant challenge for demonstrating active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) sameness between the innovator and generic drug under development. Therefore, the ability to accurately analyze and quantify the relative amounts of active ingredients present in a formulated product is critically important. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SSNMR) spectroscopy was used to identify, quantify, and compare the relative amounts of the three polymer groups in the amorphous block copolymer drug, patiromer (Veltassa®). Techniques such as cross polarization (CP) and magic angle spinning were used to quantify each polymer group while the importance of understanding CP dynamics to obtain quantitative data was also addressed. It was found that the magnetization transfer rate and chemical shift anisotropy for different functional groups present in patiromer play a large role when optimizing parameters for spectral acquisition. Once accounted for, the average patiromer lot contained 90.9%, 7.6%, and 1.5% carboxylate, aromatic, and aliphatic blocks, respectively, with little lot-to-lot variation between different dosage strengths and expiration dates. SSNMR proved to be a sensitive analytical technique for evaluating and quantifying different monomer groups present in patiromer. This procedure may serve as a guide for similar quantitation studies on complex drug products and for demonstrating API sameness during generic drug development.