Cyrene as a greener alternative to harmful solvents used in pharmaceutical cleaning

This work explores the use of cyrene as a green solvent to improve the cleaning performance on Islatravir, Doravirine and Olanzapine, which are challenging drugs to clean. Cyrene addition showed an improvement in aqueous and methanolic solubility, and ternary cyrene blends showed high solubility at high cyrene concentration, which did not directly translate into a reduction in cleaning time. The presence of cyrene and its geminal diol form reduced the API surface concentration after cleaning, thus improving the dissolution of the bound API layer. Cyrene was efficiently removed by water and left low residues. Higher cyrene concentrations (>20% vol) must be assessed for API solubility and suitability for CIP applications. [Display omitted] •Cyrene mixtures were used to improve the cleaning of low-solubility active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).•Cyrene blends with water and/or methanol improved the solubility of the APIs and thus offers a cleanability of APIs' residues.•The tuneable carbonyl/germinal diol equilibrium helps remove the bound API layer.•Cyrene offers a greener alternative to harmful solvents used in pharmaceutical cleaning.