The Italian scientist Prof. Dario Braga specializes in the fields of supramolecular solid state chemistry, crystal engineering and crystallography. He has won numerous scientific awards. He has written about 500 papers that have been published in peer-reviewed international journals, and he is the co-author of several patents. In his lecture, he focused on the crystalline form of the drug.
However, he pointed out at the outset what a lengthy and expensive process it is to introduce a drug.
- In 2018, the cost was $2.17 billion. In 2010 - $1.18 billion. This represents an increase of more than 100 percent. In addition to higher costs, drug development has become a longer process, requiring an average of 10-15 years over the past two decades compared to 9.7 years in the 1990s - the expert said.
The most important part of Prof. Braga's presentation concerned the influence of crystal form on the physicochemical and pharmaceutical properties of APIs (i.e., pharmaceutically active substances). The scientist identified and characterized various crystal forms - polymorphic varieties, solvates and cocrystals. He told how they are studied and what their structural characteristics are. He showed what consequences the use of each of these varieties can have. Finally, he pointed out how the choice of crystal form can be linked to intellectual property issues.
The lecture was organized within the framework of NAWA STER Internationalization of Doctoral Schools program.