An overview of automated systems relevant in pharmaceutical salt screening

Modern drug discovery and development tools have evolved persistently to meet the demands of the highly competitive environment of the pharmaceutical industry. This has introduced high-throughput methodologies in various stages of drug development. Salt screening is an integral part of the preformulation stage of drug development and is increasingly being adapted to ‘high-throughput experimentation’ (HTE), to shortlist the potential salt(s) for a comprehensive biopharmaceutical characterization at the scale-up stage. The selected salt form may then be forwarded to the next stage of drug development. This review provides an overview of ‘high-throughput experimentation’ methodology for selection of an optimal drug salt candidate.