Amorphous Pharmaceutical Solids: A Review

Amorphous pharmaceutical solids have recently attracted the interest of pharmaceutical scientists because of a continuous increase in the number of developmental drug molecules that are insoluble. Amorphous state of the drug provides several pharmacokinetic advantages over the crystalline state. In this review preparation methods, characterization techniques and applications of amorphous pharmaceuticals have been discussed. Quench cooling, melt extrusion, spray drying and freeze drying are important methods for amorphization of solids. Amorphous pharmaceutical solids are characterized by diffraction technique, spectroscopy, vapor sorption method and thermal analytical methods. Stability of amorphous solids is important as their advantage of improved solubility might not be long lasting.