Knowing the solubility data of pharmaceutical compounds in supercritical carbon dioxide (ScCO2) is essential for nanoparticles formation by using supercritical technology. In this work, solubility of solid pantoprazole sodium sesquihydrate in ScCO2 is determined and reported at 308, 318, 328 and 338 K and at pressures between 12 and 27 MPa. The solubilities are ranged between 0.0301 $$\times$$
×
10–4 and 0.463 $$\times$$
×
10–4 in mole fraction. The determined solubilities are modelled with a new model using solid–liquid equilibrium criteria and the required activity coefficient is developed using regular solution theory. The measured solubilities data are also modelled with three recent and four conventional empirical models. The recent models used are, Alwi-Garlapati (AARD = 13.1%), Sodeifian et al. (14.7%), and Tippana-Garlapati (15.5%) models and the conventional models used are Chrastil (17.54%), reformulated Chrastil (16.30%), Bartle (14.1%) and Mendenz Santiago and Teja (MT) (14.9%) models. The proposed model is correlating the data with less than 14.9% and 16.23% in terms of AARD for temperature dependent and independent cases. Among exiting models, Mendez Santiago and Teja (MT) and Alwi-Garlapati models correlate the data better than other models (corresponding AARD% and AICc are 14.9, 13.1 and −518.89, −504.14, respectively). The correlation effectiveness of the models is evaluated in terms of Corrected Akaike’s Information Criterion (AICc). Finally, enthalpy of solvation and vaporization of pantoprazole sodium sesquihydrate are calculated and reported. The new model proposed in this study can be used for the combination of any complex compound with any supercritical fluid.