"The first molecule, which we gave to ROW2 for RouteDesign project, was already being researched by our process research team for almost 2 years. We knew a lot of chemistry for this molecule. But to our pleasant surprise, in just four weeks time ROW2 team came up with some novel approaches, which we had not considered before. We have now decided to use RouteDesign service early in the development cycle to maximize RouteDesign benefits.”

- Process Development Head, One of the leading Pharmaceutical companies, Europe.

"New additions in SmartChem are truly value adding. Sending an after sales request was little time consuming earlier. But now with the new After Sales Assistant, I can send my requests quickly and easily. I compliment SmartChem team for these additions"

- Sourcing & Materials Manager, One of the leading chemical companies, Europe

"SmartChem now allows us to search for DMF, VMF holders for compounds of interest to us. This information is very useful to my organization.”

- Manager Sourcing, Pharma company, USA

Welcome to CI2E Quarterly! ROW2 Technologies is delighted to bring you the third issue of 2008.

CI2E connects with over 5000 industry professionals from over 900 companies spanning across 25 countries every quarter. Business Development, Sourcing and R&D professionals from Life Sciences and Chemical industries appreciate CI2E as a true Compendium of Information, Interaction and Entertainment.

• ROW2 World: Updates on ROW2 and its offerings

• Article: Route Selection as Primary Driver for Low Cost Of Goods and Green Chemistry

• Picks of the Quarter: Links to various interesting articles

• My Forum: Kim Van Horn shares information on the upcoming ACS National Conference

• Entertainment: Interesting facts about Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

ROW2 World- Quarter 3 highlights:

ROW2 News:

• ROW2 responds to today’s top most challenge: When the entire industry is preparing for managing the implications of High Impact Legislation, REACH, ROW2 too is ready to caution its SmartChem users on REACH High Concern chemicals. ROW2 team will be closely tracking declarations from European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) on REACH High concern chemicals and will keep SmartChem users informed on the latest happenings. To know more write to us here.

• SmartChem enhances features: After the successful launch of DMF/VMF Status and the Online After Sales Assistant during quarter II of 2008, SmartChem is enriched further in the quarter III. Read on to learn more about the latest and upcoming enhancements.

• ROW2’s participation at the key events: ROW2 participated in ChemOutsourcing, NJ, USA on September 8-9, ACS ProSpectives Conference, MA, USA on September 28-30 and CPhI Worldwide, Germany on September 30 - October 2, 2008.
  

• Upcoming Events: ROW2 will be attending BIO-Europe 2008 on November 17-19 in Mannheim, Germany and CPhI India on November 28-30 in Mumbai. Read on to learn about major upcoming events of October and November 2008.
  
  

SmartChem News

• Latest Enhancements:
  
  SmartChem is further enriched with some more value added enrichments during this quarter. We are thankful to our customers for their suggestions and encouraging feedback, which act as a driving force for us to make SmartChem more and more informative every time.
  Following are the latest SmartChem enrichments:

  • Company-wise Product List: The supplier section within SmartChem provides details on the supplier company’s entire product offerings.
    
  • List of Innovators/Developers: The details on the Innovator and Developer company/ies are now available in SmartChem.
    
  • Product Status: With the “current status” of compounds now updated in SmartChem, users can learn the commercial significance for compounds of their interest.
  
  

• Upcoming enhancements:

  • REACH Alerts
    
  • Details of Certificate of Suitability holders
    
  • Entirely new face of SmartChem
  
  
  

SmartChem Trial*: Evaluate the latest enhancements in SmartChem Today Absolutely FREE*. To gather more information on this offer, write to us here.
                                                                    * Conditions Apply

RouteDesign News

• ROW2 makes a dent in the Biotech Industry: With biotech companies focusing on creating increased value for each of their Out-Licensed packages; providing scalable chemistries is becoming an integral part of these packages. By partnering with ROW2 for its services RouteDesign, RouteIncubator and Route2India, biotech companies are obtaining scalable and novel chemistries for their target compounds with Proof of concept for these chemistries. Moreover, ROW2 also helps its biotech partners in Vendor Development for further scale up.
  
  Over the past 6 months, ROW2 has partnered with 7 leading Biotech companies. ROW2 has helped its biotech partners in increasing “Value” of their projects, strengthen Licensing package and Optimize ROI on each of their projects.
  
  
• Celebration Time: ROW2 will be celebrating the Process Research Chemists' Day on Nov 10 2008 and Thanksgiving Day on November 27, 2008 with its customers.
  
  

  Important Events: Oct’08 to Dec’08

  October:
  13-14 : Synthetic Heterocyclic Chemistry: London, UK
  26-28 : ACS ProSpectives: Organic Reactions and Syntheses: Philadelphia, PA
  

  November:
  17-19 : BioEurope 2008: Mannheim, Germany
  18-19 : New Horizons in Catalysis: Florida, USA
  28-30 : CPhI India: Mumbai
  

Featured Article

To reduce the cost of goods (COG) in multi-step syntheses, route selection, especially choice of starting materials, is key. Choosing the right starting materials can minimize the COG by minimizing the number of steps (potentially eliminating protection and deprotection steps) and the associated labor costs. Minimizing the number of steps also decreases waste and the cost of waste disposal; substituting catalysts for stoichiometric reagents similarly can decrease the COG.

To read the full article click here

Interesting Links

A chemical map of the mind
Published in: C&E News: September 2008 Issue

This article discuses an interesting technology called PET. Drug makers no longer have to wonder whether their potential CNS drugs have hit the target; PET helps drug makers navigate the neurological landscape.

Animals spared by using laboratory robots to testing chemicals
Published in: Natural News.com: Aug., 2008 Issue

Researchers have developed a new method to test chemicals on robots rather than animals as a way of reducing both the number of animals exposed to painful or fatal tests and cost.

Pharma suppliers brace for downturn
Published in: C&E News: Oct., 2008 Issue

The global financial crisis is coinciding with a challenging time for big pharma firms. Here is an article on the impact of this financial turmoil on pharma industry.

Featured Article Cont'd.

Choosing the right starting materials can also eliminate the costs associated with handling toxic and chemically hazardous materials, and decrease utility costs by running reactions under milder conditions. Decreased purification costs and waste can be realized by choosing starting materials that produce either intermediates that can be purified by crystallization, or cleaner process streams that can be telescoped. These guidelines are part of the Green Chemistry principles, and in general the COG is lowered by following Green Chemistry principles.

Some recent Green Chemistry Awards highlight how judicious pairing of starting materials and technology can have huge impacts on both waste and the COG for multi-step syntheses. Pfizer’s award-winning approach to manufacture sertraline from racemic starting material has probably been replaced by resolving the racemic mixture by simulated moving bed chromatography (SMB) and processing only the desired enantiomer¹. By selecting epimerizable starting materials and employing crystallization-induced asymmetric transformations (CIAT), Merck raised the yield of aprepitant and markedly reduced the number of steps, waste, and COG. Merck developed a catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation process for the unprotected enamine penultimate in sitagliptin, eliminating protection and deprotection steps. By directed evolution Codexis developed three enzymes to manufacture a key, chiral atorvastatin intermediate from an inexpensive, achiral starting material. Starting with an inexpensive byproduct of a nylon monomer precursor, Lonza developed a process for the manufacture of niacinamide using vapor-phase conditions for four steps, followed by a biotransformation². The benefits of these award-winning approaches were realized by pairing technologies with starting materials.

In the spirit of green chemistry, we need to consider the best routes to our products throughout the lifetime of our products. We may be able to apply emerging technologies to the manufacture of our products, and decrease wastes while lowering the COG. Keys are judicious route selection and selection of starting materials.

¹ Hawkins, J. M.; Watson, T. J. N. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Eng. 2004, 43, 3224.
² Chuck, R., "Green Sustainable Chemistry in the Production of Nicotinates," presented at the First International IUPAC Conference on Green-Sustainable Chemistry, 21.09.2006

About the author

Neal G. Anderson, Ph.D., consults to the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries on chemical process R&D issues. Prior to consulting he worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb for 17 years. During that time he had extensive hands-on experience with chemical process development in the lab, pilot plant, and manufacturing sites, including 12 manufacturing start-ups and process development for four major drugs and many new drug candidates. He is the author of Practical Process Research & Development (Academic Press, 2000).

nganderson@starband.net
+1-(541)899-5555

Kim Van Horn, ACS ProSpectives shares some information on the upcoming ACS national conference “Organic Reactions & Syntheses” - Oct 26-28, 2008.

Featuring top scientists in the field speaking on:

With entire world anxious to know about LHC, here are some interesting facts on LHC: