Expansion mode
Other companies also are expanding their capabilities in chiral chemistry. In April 2011, the custom pharmaceutical services
business of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories opened a new 33,000-ft2 Chirotech Technology Center in Cambridge, United Kingdom. The additional capacity will facilitate an initial doubling of
scientific staff and allow for further capacity additions, including capabilities in biocatalysis and chemocatalysis. In another
development in 2010, Sigma Aldrich partnered with BASF to sell BASF's ChiPros branded chiral molecules in small quantities
of up to one kilogram. The partnership involves 80 products, including chiral amines, alcohols, epoxides, and acids.
In a reorganization announced in August 2011, Evonik is combining its custom manufacturing business (i.e., exclusive synthesis)
with its businesses for pharmaceutical amino acids (i.e., Rexim product line) and pharmaceutical polymers in a new healthcare
business line, effective Sept. 1, 2011. The company's exclusive-synthesis business includes capabilities in biocatalysis and
chemocatalysis, and the pharmaceutical amino acid business includes natural and nonnatural amino acids for making chiral building
blocks.
Tools for molecular characterization and chiral separations also play an important role in producing single-enantiomer drugs.
Recent activity includes a collaboration, announced in July 2011, between Chiral Technologies, a provider of chiral separation
products, and BioTools, a provider of instrumentation for vibrational chiroptical spectroscopy. Vibrational circular dichroism
(VCD) technology is used in structural characterization of chiral drugs and biopharmaceuticals. BioTools manufactures and
sells VCD spectrometers, which are used to determine the absolute configuration of single enantiomers.
In December 2010, BioTools, Ghent University in Belgium, and the University of Antwerp opened the European Center for Chirality.
The center's mission is to help academic and industrial scientists develop chirality-related applications by offering services
ranging from the determination of absolute chiral configurations, vibrational optical activity (VOA) measurements, and computational
modeling by providing expert consultants, educational workshops, and open-access VOA instrumentation.
In chromatographic applications, in May 2011, Chiral Technologies launched a new immobilized chiral stationary phase, Chiralpak
ID, the fourth addition to the company's product line of immobilized chiral stationary phases. It can be used in high-performance
liquid chromatography and supercritical fluid chromatography.
In September 2010, the European operations of Chiral Technologies, Chiral Technologies Europe, entered into a global licensing
agreement with the University of Vienna under which Chiral Technologies Europe acquired exclusive manufacturing and marketing
rights for Cinchona alkaloid-based zwitterion-exchange type chiral stationary phases invented and developed by researchers at the University of
Vienna. The zwitterion-exchange type chiral separation phases separate a broad range of ionizable chiral analytes, which range
from acidic and basic molecules to zwitterionic molecules that bear basic and acidic moieties in the same molecule.
Patricia Van Arnum is a senior editor at Pharmaceutical Technology, 485 Route One South, Bldg F, First Floor, Iselin, NJ 08830 tel. 732.346.3072, pvanarnum@advanstar.com
.
References
1. P. Van Arnum, Pharm. Technol.
34 (8) 42–44 (2010).
2. C.K. Savile et al., Science
329 (5989), 305–309 (2010).
3. EPA, "The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards Program: Summary of 2010 Award Entries and Recipients" (Washington,
DC, 2010).
4. EPA, "The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards Program: Summary of 2010 Award Entries and Recipients" (Washington,
DC, 2011).
5. Y. Tang, Science
326 (5952), 589–592 (2009).
|
