Recent Advances in Nonlinear Optical Analyses of Pharmaceutical Materials in the Solid State

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Materials Science
• Pharmaceutical Sciences

Background:

• Nonlinear optical (NLO) techniques have gained prominence in pharmaceutical analysis over the last decade.
• Techniques include second harmonic generation, coherent antistokes Raman scattering, stimulated Raman scattering, and two-photon fluorescence.
• These methods are valuable for solid-state characterization of pharmaceutical materials.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the recent literature on NLO techniques for pharmaceutical material characterization.
• To highlight the advantages of NLO methods, such as speed, selectivity, and quantitation.
• To organize the review according to the drug development pipeline.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of nonlinear optical techniques.
• Categorization of applications based on drug development stages: crystallization, polymorphic analysis, dosage form characterization, and drug product performance testing.

Main Results:

• NLO techniques provide significant advantages for pharmaceutical characterization, including speed and selectivity.
• Applications span from early-stage crystallization studies to final drug product performance evaluation.
• The review consolidates a large body of recent literature in this field.

Conclusions:

• Nonlinear optical techniques are increasingly important for efficient pharmaceutical characterization.
• Faster characterization using NLO methods can accelerate the development and testing of new drugs.
• This review provides a comprehensive overview of NLO applications across the drug development lifecycle.