Near infrared spectroscopy in the study of polymorphic transformations

The potential of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for the characterization of polymorphs in the active principle of a commercial formulation prior to and after the manufacturing process was assessed. Polymorphism in active principles is extremely significant to the pharmaceutical industry. Polymorphic changes during the production of commercial pharmaceutical formulations can alter some properties of the resulting end-products. Multivariate curve resolution–alternating least squares (MCR–ALS) methodology was used to obtain the “pure” NIR spectrum for the active principle without the need to pretreat samples. This methodology exposed the polymorphic transformation of Dexketoprofen Trometamol (DKP) in both laboratory and production samples obtained by wet granulation. No polymorphic transformation, however, was observed in samples obtained by direct compaction. These results were confirmed using by X-ray powder diffractometry (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements. Pure crystalline polymorphs of DKP were available in the laboratory but amorphous form was not, nevertheless the developed methodology allows the identification of amorphous and crystal forms in spite of the lack of pure DKP.