Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 June 2002
Electron diffraction has been recently used in the pharmaceutical industry to study the polymorphism in crystalline drug substances. While conventional X-ray diffraction patterns could not be used to determine the cell parameters of two forms of the microcrystalline GP IIb/IIIa receptor antagonist roxifiban, a combination of electron single-crystal and synchrotron powder diffraction techniques were able to clearly distinguish the two polymorphs. The unit-cell parameters of the two polymorphs were ultimately determined using new software routines designed to take advantage of each technique's unique capabilities. The combined use of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and synchrotron patterns appears to be a good general approach for characterizing complex (low-symmetry, large-unit-cell, micron-sized) polymorphic pharmaceutical compounds.