Improving sustainability in the pharmaceutical supply chain necessitates prioritizing green chemistry and low-carbon footprint technologies such as continuous flow chemistry. PharmaBlock has been recognized with the 2023 and 2024 "ACS CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award" for their award-winning projects, which exemplify their commitment to, and advancements toward developing innovative green technologies. The 2023 award was presented for an innovative continuous process to produce 3-oxocyclobutane-1-carboxylic acid, an essential building block in the syntheses of multiple marketed drugs, via decarboxylation, decolorization, extraction, and separation. The 2024 award highlighted pioneering work on continuous oxidation and reductive amination reactions at the manufacturing scale by leveraging micropacked bed technology to successfully produce tert-butyl 3-oxoazetidine-1-carboxylate and derivative tert-butyl 3-aminoazetidine-1-carboxylate, both of which are crucial intermediates for many marketed drugs.

Key discussion points include:

1. Enhancing the performance of the manufacturing of raw materials and RSMs often yields the highest return on sustainability. These early intermediates typically have a significant environmental impact as their processes are not as well-optimized, and the manufacturing scale is larger than in downstream steps.

2. The major challenges to overcome when implementing flow technology, particularly in hydrogenation or other heterogeneous reactions, include the investment in "specialized" equipment, immobilized catalyst technology, as well as process analytical technology.

3. The PharmaBlock team overcame these challenges and brought positive environmental impact through these innovative technologies.

Future perspectives on pharmaceutical supply chain sustainability will also be discussed.

Joseph R. A. Kincaid

Appearances