Characterization of the solid state: quantitative issues

Quantitative analysis of solid state composition is often used to ensure th e safety and efficacy of drug substances or to establish and validate the c ontrol of the pharmaceutical production process. There are a number of comm on techniques that can be applied to quantify the phase composition and num erous different methods for each technique. Each quantitative option presen ts its own issues in ensuring accuracy and precision of the solid state met hod. The following article describes many of the common techniques that are used for quantitative phase analysis and many of the considerations that a re necessary for the development of such methods. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.