Urea co-inclusion compounds of 13 cis-retinoic acid for simultaneous improvement of dissolution profile, photostability and safe handling characteristics

Drug complexes: Perspective from Academic Research and Pharmaceutical Market

Despite numerous research efforts, drug delivery through the oral route remains a major challenge to formulation scientists. The oral delivery of drugs poses a significant challenge because more than 40% of new chemical entities are practically insoluble in water. Low aqueous solubility is the main problem encountered during the formulation development of new actives and for generic development. A complexation approach has been widely investigated to address this issue, which subsequently improves the bioavailability of these drugs. This review discusses the various types of complexes such as metal complex (drug-metal ion), organic molecules (drug-caffeine or drug-hydrophilic polymer), inclusion complex (drug-cyclodextrin), and pharmacosomes (drug-phospholipids) that improves the aqueous solubility, dissolution, and permeability of the drug along with the numerous case studies reported in the literature. Besides improving solubility, drug-complexation provides versatile functions like improving stability, reducing the toxicity of drugs, increasing or decreasing the dissolution rate, and enhancing bioavailability and biodistribution. Apart, various methods to predict the stoichiometric ratio of reactants and the stability of the developed complex are discussed.

Drug solubilization by complexation

Drugs must possess some solubility in water to be therapeutically effective after oral or topical administration to the eye, and drugs must be soluble to be formulated as aqueous solutions for, for example, parenteral delivery. A variety of methods can be applied to enhance aqueous solubility of poorly soluble drugs one of which is the usage of solubilizing complexing agents. There are numerous types of complexes and some are more water-soluble than others. Coordination complexes consist of drugs that act as complexing agents (i.e. ligands) and metal ions (i.e. substrates). Examples of coordination complexes are some water-soluble tetracycline-metal ion complexes. Organic molecular complexes can consist of a small substrate (i.e. the drug) and a small (e.g., caffeine) or a large (e.g., polyvinylpyrrolidone) ligand. In inclusion complexes the substrate is partly or completely enveloped by the complexing agent (e.g., cyclodextrin). Finally, pharmacosomes are drug-phospholipid complexes that can not only enhance aqueous solubility of poorly soluble drugs but also their solubility in organic solvents. This is a mini-review of solubilizing complexing agents that are or can be used in pharmaceutical products.

Study of complex formation of carbamazepine with thiourea

The aim of this study, we evaluated a complex between thiourea (TU) and carbamazepine (CBZ) of a poorly soluble drug by using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography and the solubility test. PXRD of TU/CBZ=2/1, 1/1, and 1/2 prepared by solvent evaporation (EVP) revealed characteristic diffraction peaks at 2θ = 6.7°, 8.8°, 13.5°, and 20.4°, therefore molecular interaction between TU and CBZ presumably occurred. Results of the FT-IR spectroscopy, asymmetric and symmetric NH stretching vibration of TU were shifted to high region by TU/CBZ = 2/1, 1/1, and 1/2 EVP. TU/CBZ = 2/1 and 1/1 EVP had absorption derived from TU. It was considered that complex were formed by TU/CBZ = 1/2. X-Ray crystallography of TU and CBZ revealed a crystal structure with one TU molecule arranged near two CBZ molecules. Molecules of the same type overlap in this layer. When doing a solubility test by using CBZ and samples of EVP, physical mixture and crystals in TU/CBZ = 1/2 to confirm the solubility in water of TU/CBZ complex, there is no difference with the CBZ. It considered that the structure of a complex differs from the tunnel structure of inclusion complexes that has been previously reported contribute to result it.