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Updated: Jun 7, 2026

Automated Protocols for Macromolecular Crystallization at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Published on: January 24, 2018
Benefits of cocrystallisation in pharmaceutical materials science: an update
Tomislav Friščić1, William Jones
1Pfizer Institute for Pharmaceutical Materials Science and Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road,Cambridge CB21EW, UK. tf253@cam.ac.uk
Objectives:
We provide a brief overview of recent applications of cocrystals for improving the physico-chemical and materials properties of active pharmaceutical ingredients, including solubility, humidity and thermal stability, dissolution rates and compressibility for tablet formation.
Key Findings:
This overview illustrates the pharmaceutical applications of cocrystals, with a selection of recent examples and also attempts to foresee future developments by proposing several directions not yet explored in the area of pharmaceutical cocrystallisation.
Summary:
Reliable strategies for the synthesis and design of pharmaceutical cocrystals have now been established, and the potential of cocrystallisation for enhancing the solid-state properties of drugs is well recognised; the field is now moving towards the understanding of cocrystal structure-property relationships, for which systematic structural studies and computational approaches will play a key role.
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