Abstract

PHYSIOCHEMICAL ASSESSMENT OF PHARMACEUTICAL SALT FORMS: A QUALITY ATTRIBUTE

Patil Swati Avinash*

Abstract

Salt formation is a simple way of modifying the properties of a drug having ionisable functional groups in order to overcome some undesirable characteristic of the parent drug. An active pharmaceutical ingredient often has suboptimal physicochemical or biopharmaceutical properties that can be overcome by pairing a basic or acidic drug molecule with a counterion to create a salt version of the drug. Physicochemical characteristics of a drug can be dramatically altered by salt formation. Around 50%of drug administered as salts. The chemical, biological, physical and economic characteristics of medicinal agents can be manipulated and, hence, often optimized by conversion to a salt form. Salt-forming agents are often chosen empirically. They can be selected by pharmaceutical chemists primarily on practical basis: cost of raw materials, ease of crystallization, and percent yield. Other basic considerations include stability, hygroscopicity, and flowability of the resulting bulk drug.

Keywords: Salt, Physiochemical properties.