Improved Pharma Expands In-House Single Crystal Capabilities

Addition of crystallographer and new instrumentation in support of single crystal structure determination

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., July 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Improved Pharma has expanded its capabilities to include in-house single crystal structure determination with the recent acquisition and installation of a Rigaku XtaLAB Synergy-i diffractometer.  The instrument is equipped with a copper X-Ray source, four circle kappa goniometer, and a pixel array direct photon counting detector for high quality data from crystals on the order of 100 microns in size.

Single crystal structure determination remains the gold standard in crystal form identification, providing valuable information including form purity, density, coformer stoichiometry, unit cell parameters, and an unambiguous absolute configuration.  It is recommended to obtain the crystal structure of all forms of interest if possible, with particular emphasis on anhydrous and hydrated forms.

To support this new endeavor, Improved Pharma is pleased to add Jared Smit to the team of expert scientists. Jared has a B.S. in Chemistry from Wabash College and a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Northwestern University, with a postdoc appointment at the University of Liverpool.  He has been a materials scientist and staff crystallographer in the solid form development group at SSCI (and its affiliated companies) for the past 17 years, determining hundreds of crystal structures and indexing thousands of X-Ray powder diffraction patterns in the context of pharmaceutical solid form development during that time.

About Improved Pharma
Improved Pharma is a research, consulting, and information company dedicated to improving pharmaceutical methods, formulations, and processes. Services include solid-state form studies, formulation design, synchrotron techniques, analytical testing, and expert consulting for the development and defense of intellectual property matters. The company was founded in 2006 by Stephen and Sarah Byrn, who also founded SSCI.

SOURCE Improved Pharma