We
combine state-of-the-art computational crystal structure prediction
(CSP) techniques with a wide range of experimental crystallization
methods to understand and explore crystal structure in pharmaceuticals
and minimize the risk of unanticipated late-appearing polymorphs.
Initially, we demonstrate the power of CSP to rationalize the difficulty
in obtaining polymorphs of the well-known pharmaceutical isoniazid
and show that CSP provides the structure of the recently obtained,
but unsolved, Form III of this drug despite there being only a single
resolved form for almost 70 years. More dramatically, our blind CSP
study predicts a significant risk of polymorphism for the related
iproniazid. Employing a wide variety of experimental techniques, including
high-pressure experiments, we experimentally obtained the first three
known nonsolvated crystal forms of iproniazid, all of which were successfully
predicted in the CSP procedure. We demonstrate the power of CSP methods
and free energy calculations to rationalize the observed elusiveness
of the third form of iproniazid, the success of high-pressure experiments
in obtaining it, and the ability of our synergistic computational-experimental
approach to “de-risk” solid form landscapes.