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.