Enabling Enantiopurity: Combining Racemization and Dual-Drug Co-crystal Resolution

A new process methodology to obtain enantiopure (S)-Ibuprofen has been designed. Starting from racemic Ibuprofen, co-crystallization with Levetiracetam is used as a resolution tool to obtain only the target enantiomer,(S)-Ibuprofen, in the solid state. The resulting mother liquor, enriched in (R)-Ibuprofen, is recovered and submitted to a racemization cycle, after which another co-crystallization step is introduced. Levetiracetam can be recovered from the co-crystal phase and reused, resulting in an economical use of the resolution agent. Overall, a novel approach to transform a racemic compound into enantiopure material has been developed