CRISSY® - an automatic workbench for salt pre-screening and polymorph screening studies

Polymorphism affects a number of issues in pharmaceutical systems from processing characteristics and shelf life to bioavailability. To avoid "surprises" and secure potential product patents, polymorph screening is necessary at a very early stage in the drug discovery process. Since a large number of candidates with very small sample volumes have to be tested, an automated system is required to cope with the requirements.

The solution is Zinsser Analytic`s CRISSY®, an automatic workbench for salt pre-screening and polymorph screening studies. This platform automates all steps from precise gravimetric controlled distribution of the API, liquid handling of solvents, crystallisation at controlled temperatures under agitation and concentration or evaporation, as well as pH-measurement.

The unique CRISSY® reactor block directly presents the crystals to the XRPD system without any additional sampling steps. The surface of the reactor bases is ideal for XRPD- detection. Cross contamination caused by electrostatic charge of the powders, is eliminated as the detector block itself is grounded and the individual reactor cavities are separated from each other in the “up” position. The CRISSY® system is supported by powerful software.

For the design of the screen there is a choice between our design tools and Symyx® software, which can be integrated with the control software WinLISSY, the scheduling tool WinRun and a data collection module which stores all data created in an internal SQL-data base. For final data reduction evaluation and reporting powerful tools are available from ACD.