Pharmaceutical analysis beyond compendial requirements

Recent ICH recommendations on test procedures and acceptance criteria for new drug substances of synthetic chemical origin and new drug products produced from them (Q6A) sets the frame for registration of new chemical entities. These requirements are automatically applied by all pharmaceutical companies to products in late developmental phases. Furthermore, and justifiably so, they do not provide any guideline for setting specifications other than those for residual solvents and residues of heavy metal catalysts. During development of new chemical entities, ICH requirements represent a minimum beyond which additional testing has to be carried out in order to accumulate a body of scientific data which may ultimately permit simplified testing. This information is furthermore needed for drafting of registration files. This presentation will provide information on salt and polymorph selection, as well as morphology of particles. The need for more sophisticated techniques for assay of trace impurities by LC/MS will be illustrated with examples of alkylating agents. Complementary information from techniques such as CE, orthogonal to HPLC, is often needed to ensure absence of additional impurities. Finally, beyond compendial characterisation of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, a commonly used excipient, by size exclusion chromatography with triple detection will be described.     

Novel synthetic approach for optical resolution of cryptophanol-A: a direct access to chiral cryptophanes and their chiroptical properties

The separation by crystallization of the pair of cryptophane diastereomers 1 a and 1 b, obtained in 1:1 ratio by treating racemic anti cryptophanol-A (2) with (-)-camphanic acid chloride, provided a substantial amount of optically pure material (diastereomeric excess>98 %). Subsequent hydrolysis afforded the optically pure cryptophanol-A enantiomers (+)-2 and (-)-2, which were submitted to nucleophilic substitution reactions to provide cryptophane-A (+)-3 and cryptophane monoester (-)-4 in optically pure form. The chiroptical properties of the new cryptophanes 1-4 were investigated by using circular dichroism spectroscopy, and the absolute configuration of the molecules was clearly established. These new cryptophanes represent additional interesting examples for studying the Cotton effect of interacting multichromophoric systems. Moreover, this novel approach presents numerous advantages over the other methods developed so far to obtain optically pure cryptophanes, and compounds (-)-2, (+)-2, and (-)-4 can give access to new enantiopure functionalized cryptophanes with host-guest properties similar to those of cryptophane-A.     

Conformational polymorphism of methacrylamide

The industrially important compound methacrylamide crystallizes as concomitant conformational polymorphs; the monoclinic form contains only the s-cis conformer, while the orthorhombic form contains only the s-trans conformer.     

Electroreductive Cross-Coupling of Trifluoromethyl Alkenes and Redox Active Esters for the Synthesis of Gem-Difluoroalkenes

An electroreductive access to gem-difluoroalkenes has been developed through the decarboxylative/defluorinative coupling of N-hydroxyphtalimides esters and α-trifluoromethyl alkenes. The electrolysis is performed under very simple reaction conditions in an undivided cell using cheap carbon graphite electrodes. This metal-free transformation features broad scope with good to excellent yields. Tertiary, secondary as well as primary alkyl radicals could be easily introduced. α-aminoacids L-aspartic and L-glutamic acid-derived redox active esters were good reactive partners furnishing potentially relevant gem-difluoroalkenes. In addition, it has been demonstrated that our electrosynthetic approach toward the synthesis of gem-difluoroalkenes could use an easily prepared Kratitsky salt as alkyl radical precursor via a deaminative/defluorinative carbofunctionalization of trifluoromethylstyrene.     

Polyelectrolyte complex nanoparticles from N‐carboxyethylchitosan and polycationic double hydrophilic diblock copolymers

For the first time, the polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) formation tool was used for preparation of core‐shell nanoparticles form the natural polyampholyte N‐carboxyethylchitosan (CECh) and weak polycationic (protonated) polyoxyethylene‐b‐poly[2‐(dimethyl‐amino)ethyl methacrylate] (POE‐b‐PDMAEMA) diblock copolymers. The performed dynamic light scattering analyses revealed that nanoparticles with a PEC core and a POE shell could be formed at mixing ratio between the oppositely charged groups equal to 1/1 depending on CECh molar mass, polymerization degree of PDMAEMA block and ionic strength. The results were confirmed by the performed AFM and cryo‐TEM analyses. When high molar mass CECh was used, core‐shell nanoparticles were obtained with the diblock copolymer of the shortest PDMAEMA block at ionic strength (I) of 0.01. At ionic strength value close to the physiological one (I = 0.1) secondary aggregation occurred. Spherical nanoparticles at I = 0.1 were obtained upon lowering the CECh molar mass. Depending on the polymer partners and medium parameters the size of the obtained particles varied from 60 to 600 nm. The X‐ray photoelectron spectra evidenced the hydrophilic POE‐block shell—coacervate CECh/PDMAEMA‐block core structure. The nanoparticles are stable in a rather narrow pH range around 7.0, thus revealing the high pH‐sensitivity of the obtained core‐shell particles. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 2105–2117, 2009     

Efficiency and scalability of a two‐level Schwarz algorithm for incompressible and compressible flows

This paper studies the application of two‐level Schwarz algorithms to several models of computational fluid dynamics. The purpose is to build an algorithm suitable for elliptic and convective models. The subdomain approximated solution relies on the incomplete lower‐upper factorization. The algebraic coupling between the coarse grid and the Schwarz preconditioner is discussed. The deflation method and the balancing domain decomposition method are studied for introducing the coarse‐grid correction as a preconditioner. Standard coarse grids are built with the characteristic or indicator functions of the subdomains. The building of a set of smooth basis functions (analogous to smoothed‐aggregation methods) is considered. A first test problem is the Poisson problem with a discontinuous coefficient. The two options are compared for the standpoint of coarse‐grid consistency and for the gain in scalability of the global Schwarz iteration. The advection–diffusion model is then considered as a second test problem. Extensions to compressible flows (together with incompressible flows for comparison) are then proposed. Parallel applications are presented and their performance measured. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non-Symmetrical Sterically Challenged Phenanthroline Ligands and Their Homoleptic Copper(I) Complexes with Improved Excited-State Properties

A strategy is presented to improve the excited state reactivity of homoleptic copper–bis(diimine) complexes CuL₂⁺ by increasing the steric bulk around Cu^I whereas preserving their stability. Substituting the phenanthroline at the 2-position by a phenyl group allows the implementation of stabilizing intramolecular π stacking within the copper complex, whereas tethering a branched alkyl chain at the 9-position provides enough steric bulk to rise the excited state energy E⁰⁰. Two novel complexes are studied and compared to symmetrical models. The impact of breaking the symmetry of phenanthroline ligands on the photophysical properties of the complexes is analyzed and rationalized thanks to a combined theoretical and experimental study. The importance of fine-tuning the steric bulk of the N–N chelate in order to stabilize the coordination sphere is demonstrated. Importantly, the excited state reactivity of the newly developed complexes is improved as demonstrated in the frame of a reductive quenching step, evidencing the relevance of our strategy.     

An Analytical Framework to Describe the Interactions Between Individuals and a Continuum

We consider a discrete set of individual agents interacting with a continuum. Examples might be a predator facing a huge group of preys, or a few shepherd dogs driving a herd of sheep. Analytically, these situations can be described through a system of ordinary differential equations coupled with a scalar conservation law in several space dimensions. This paper provides a complete well-posedness theory for the resulting Cauchy problem. A few applications are considered in detail and numerical integrations are provided.