The effect of low molecular weight excipients on drug-excipient interactions, molecular mobility, and propensity to recrystallization of an amorphous active pharmaceutical ingredient is investigated. Two structurally related excipients (α-pentaacetylglucose and β-pentaacetylglucose), five different drug:excipient ratios (1:5, 1:2, 1:1, 2:1, and 5:1, w/w), and three different solid state characterization tools (differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray powder diffraction, and dielectric relaxation spectroscopy) were selected for the present research. Our investigation has shown that the excipient concentration and its molecular structure reveal quasi-identical molecular dynamic behavior of solid dispersions above and below the glass transition temperature. Across to complementary quantum mechanical simulations, we point out a clear indication of a strong interaction between biclotymol and the acetylated saccharides. Moreover, the thermodynamic study on these amorphous solid dispersions highlighted a stabilizing effect of α-pentaacetylglucose regardless of its quantity while an excessive concentration of β-pentaacetylglucose revealed a poor crystallization inhibition. Finally, through long-term stability studies, we also showed the limiting excipient concentration needed to stabilize our amorphous API. Herewith, the developed procedure in this paper appears to be a promising tool for solid-state characterization of complex pharmaceutical formulations.
Keywords: amorphous solid dispersion; biclotymol; density functional theory; dielectric spectroscopy; excipients; molecular mobility; physical stability.