Pharma benefits from car technology

Applying the benefits of the car industry's emission control technology to pharmaceutical production is the goal of the licencing agreement between catalyst technologies company Reaxa and Japan's Hokko Chemical Industry Co. Ltd. It opens the way for Hokko's new generation of perovskite catalysts to be developed for non-automotive applications.

Reaxa plans to develop perovskites for use in chemical synthesis, and to apply these new and highly active catalysts to drug process development and scale-up. Under the agreement, Reaxa gained exclusive commercialisation rights for Hokko's perovskite catalyst range for non-automotive applications outside Japan. In addition, the companies will collaborate on further product development, targeted specifically at pharmaceutical synthesis.

A perovskite catalyst test kit is now available from Reaxa. Containing eight of Hokko's new perovskites, the kit will be available to researchers for use in their own laboratories on non-automotive applications.

In trials conducted by Reaxa in collaboration with Professor Stephen Ley of Cambridge University, Hokko's Pd perovskites have been shown to be excellent catalysts for chemical synthesis, with very low levels of residual precious metal contamination in the resulting product.

"This agreement gives Reaxa access to exciting new technology, complementing our existing EnCat encapsulated catalysts and QuadraPure metal scavengers," said Reaxa ceo Dr Pete Jackson.