New safe reactor technology cuts pharma waste
Technology developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison promises to reduce pharma waste
Production of a single kilogram of pharmaceuticals often yields hundreds of kilograms of chemical waste. But, new chemistry developed by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, combined with technology developed by researchers from Eli Lilly and Company, promises to dramatically reduce that waste stream for a key step in the pharmaceutical production process.
Writing in the online edition of the journal Green Chemistry (16 June, 2010), a team led by Shannon S. Stahl, a UW-Madison chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, describes a pharmaceutical reactor technology and companion chemistry capable of using oxygen in safe, clean, industrial-scale production of drugs.
Pharmaceutical production is often cited as one of the most wasteful sectors in the chemical industry, says Stahl, an expert on oxidation and catalysis, processes crucial to pharmaceutical manufacture. But the reactor technology developed by his team works by precisely and safely blending hydrocarbons with oxygen diluted with nitrogen for the oxidation reactions necessary to make pharmaceutical ingredients and their chemical precursors.
The technology is inexpensive and promises to dramatically reduce waste associated with key steps in pharmaceutical production.
‘Selective oxidation involves converting these hydrocarbon products and other chemical precursors into the building blocks of pharmaceuticals,’ said Stahl. ‘The hope is this new technology will contribute to the greening of the pharmaceutical industry. And reducing waste not only yields environmental dividends, but also ultimately saves companies money.’
The catch for using oxygen in pharmaceutical production has always been safety. The primary feedstocks for most pharmaceuticals are hydrocarbons that have the potential to explode when combined with oxygen.
‘While most drug companies recognise the potential of using oxygen as a way to reduce waste, they've been reluctant to consider it because of safety concerns,’ said Stahl.
Scientists and engineers from Lilly have worked with Stahl's Wisconsin group to develop a continuous-flow process capable of harnessing diluted oxygen in key production steps to make the complex pharmaceutical molecules.
According to Stahl, the new reactor technology has a small footprint and works at the scales necessary for commercial drug production.
‘It's a very transportable technology,' he said. ‘In principle, any company can now consider aerobic oxidation as part of their synthesis portfolio. This could be scaled to levels of tons per year without significant modifications to the reactor design.’
