Supercritical fluid chromatography for the enantioseparation of pharmaceuticals

Chirality has a significant impact on drug discovery and development processes in the pharmaceutical industry. As the number of enantiopure drugs launched onto the market is yearly increasing, the need for fast and performant enantioseparation methods with minimal costs is becoming more compelling. In this context, sub- and supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), being applicable at an analytical, as well as at a preparative scale is gaining more interest. In this review a practical overview is given of the different parameters that are important in supercritical fluid chromatographic separations. A comparison is made between the applicability for chiral separations of SFC and conventional high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and illustrated by means of examples. Different aspects of method development and the upscaling feasibility in SFC are discussed. This review aims to give the reader a practical insight in the use of supercritical fluid chromatography for the chiral separation of pharmaceutical compounds. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.