Cocrystals: A Path Towards Improved Functionality of Bioactive Compounds

Cocrystals have been known since long, however, they represent an under-explored class of crystalline substances. They have made a team of pharmaceutical scientists and crystal engineers interested in this area since the existence of compounds in crystal form may be very significant for the performance of pharmaceutical formulations and thus, it has now become an important part of the pre-formulation studies during drug development. It especially holds true for the compounds having intrinsic barriers like low solubility and dissolution rate, low permeation and high pre-systemic metabolism which pose a huge challenge in effective drug delivery. Crystal engineering, i.e. cocrystals, offer a promising alternative approach to overcome these hurdles apart from already available techniques. Co-crystallization modifies the bulk material and physicochemical characteristics of active ingredients without interfering with their inherent characteristics. The current manuscript attempts to dive in deep to understand crystal engineering technique, its superiority over salt and polymorphic forms of drugs, mechanism of formation of cocrystals and evaluation thereof.