A PSI spin-off company can detect low levels of impurities and polymorphs in pharmaceutical and chemical products.

Polymorphism can have a significant impact on the quality and performance of pharmaceutical and chemical products. Carprofen is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug used in veterinary medicine. Characterisation of possible polymorphs by laboratory x-ray powder diffraction could only indicate that carprofen might exist in two different forms.

Excelsus Structure Solutions, a PSI spin-off company, used high-resolution synchrotron powder diffraction to demonstrate carprofen I (thermodynamically stable form) and carprofen II (kinetically stable form) were conformational polymorphs differing only by the torsional angle of a methyl group.

References

Thermal, spectroscopic, and ab initio structural characterization of carprofen polymorphs
Bruni G, Gozzo F, Capsoni D, Bini M, Macchi P, Simoncic P, Berbenni V, Milanese C, Girella A, Ferrari S, Marini A
Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 2011;100:2321.
https://doi.org/10.1002/jps.22470