The Future of API Synthesis

Historically, given enough time and resources, almost any small molecule API will succumb to “total synthesis” – first in medicinal chemistry and then in process chemistry. The greatest challenge facing the process chemist, both then and now, is to produce the molecules under a state of control, with a reproducible impurity profile, in an economical fashion, and at increasing scale. These seemingly simple but high-level goals arguably cause the most problems and influence route design the most. In addition, the regulatory and toxicology landscape has changed and a much more rigorous approach to impurity control, especially of potential genotoxins, has emerged (and rightly so).

Read what lies ahead for API synthesis in this informative article.