Pharmaceutical Preformulation Salt Screening Services (Salt Selection)

The formation of salts is invaluable for the preparation of safe and effective dosage forms of many drugs. Whether the drug products are solutions or solids, the use of a salt provides a higher concentration in solution than the free acid or free base (nonionized forms). Typically, salts readily undergo crystallization, and the resulting material facilitates subsequent processing. Thus, the salt is often the preferred form for isolating and purifying the drug. Salt screenings are done to improve an active pharmaceutical ingredient's (API) or investigational medicinal product's (IMP) solid form characteristics, such as solubility/dissolution, stability (both chemical and polymorphic) and hygroscopicity. Salts are characterized using a variety of techniques and their solubility assessed, thus providing early directional data for the selection of the optimum pharmaceutical salt.