ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable

ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable—Catalyzing green chemistry & engineering in the global pharmaceutical industry.

Chemistry in Water

There are many who believe that water is the “greenest” solvent, and there has been considerable work in recent years to demonstrate a variety of synthetic reactions in water that historically have only been carried out in organic solvents. Roundtable member companies have organized to share best practices and advance the reaction, work-up, and isolation technology required for running water-based synthetic organic reactions.

figure showing chemistry in water process with nanoreactor

Cellulose derivative accelerates organic chemistry in water
June 24, 2018 | C&EN

Team Leads

 

Dan Bailey, Takeda
Dan Bailey
Takeda

Team Members

Isamir Martinez, Wilfried Braje, Tim Towne, Fabrice Gallou, Jennifer Obligacion, Guy Humphrey, Doug Kjell, Nitin Patel, Paul Richardson, Richard Fox, Andrew Bayly, Steffanie Roeper, Xiaoyong Li, Paul Asters, Rachel Gershman, Dan Bailey, Alan Steven, Duc Tran

Goal

Facilitate the adoption of aqueous reaction media for organic synthesis in the Pharmaceutical Industry in order to reduce the use of hazardous solvents in drug development and manufacturing.

Team Folder

DMS: Chemistry in Water

Projects

  • Reproducibility Study: Investigate reproducibility and scalability of published chemistry in water methodology by replicating representative examples at participating companies.
  • 2020 Targeted Research Grant on “Increasing the Utility of Surfactant-Based Chemistry in Water Methodologies”: Provide support for up to 12 months (up to $50 K) in the research and development toward overcoming practical and engineering barriers to the broad application and scale-up of surfactant based chemistry in water technology

Team Status

Updated: September 2021

Goal: Promote the adoption of Chemistry in Water

Achievements

  • Organized a Chemistry in Water symposium titled “Leaving Organic Solvents Behind: Chemistry in Aqueous Media” at the 2021 GC&E Conference (symposium accepted)
  • Completed experimental work for the reproducibility study. Team members have evaluated published examples of amide bond formation, Suzuki, Sonogashira, SNAr, nitro reduction, and reductive amination in water at different scales.

Challenges

  • Maintaining engagement of the whole team as we begin focusing on drafting the reproducibility study manuscript with a smaller sub-team of participants.
  • Will need to evaluate what comes next after the reproducibility study is complete and published. Team brainstorming for collaboration ideas may be needed.

Activity Snapshot

  • GCIPR points of contact working with 2020 Targeted Grant awardees for “Increasing the Utility of Surfactant-based Chemistry in Water Methodologies” (Prof. Dan Weix and Prof. Martin Anderson) to fulfill the goals of the proposal.
  • Team members have begun planning and drafting a manuscript for publication of the reproducibility study results.

Upcoming Projects

  • Draft the manuscript for the reproducibility study and submit for publication by the end of the 2021 calendar year.