Method to predict drug stability could lead to more effective medicines

Researchers from the UK and Denmark have developed a new method to predict the physical stability of drug candidates, which could help with the development of new and more effective medicines for patients. The technology has been licensed to Cambridge spin-out company TeraView, who are developing it for use in the pharmaceutical industry in order to make medicines that are more easily released in the body. This is a very old problem, and for pharmaceutical companies, it's often too big of a risk. Axel Zeitler The researchers, from the Universities of Cambridge and Copenhagen, have developed a new method to solve an old problem: how to predict when and how a solid will crystallise. Using optical and mechanical measuring techniques, they found that localised movement of molecules within a solid is ultimately responsible for crystallisation. This solution to the problem was first proposed in 1969, but it has only now become possible to prove the hypothesis. The results are reported in two papers in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics and The Journal of Physical Chemistry B .