ABSTRACT
The formulation of poorly water-soluble drugs into crystalline nanosuspensions is an area of active pharmaceutical research [1,2]. As the particle size is reduced, the surface area of the drug is increased, leading to greater bioavailability [3]. However, the stabilization of crystalline nanosuspensions is nontrivial, especially given the limited number of surfactants that are also pharmaceutically acceptable excipients. Regardless, we have identižed several surfactant combinations that can stabilize a variety of crystalline nanosuspensions. However, each new drug compound needs to be screened empirically with the various surfactant combinations to žnd the most stable formulation. This is time-consuming and can require a prohibitive amount of drug in early development phases [4]. This work was undertaken to develop a molecular modeling approach to rapid surfactant screening, which could identify stabilizing surfactant systems for a particular drug, based on its crystal structure.
