The Biotech Working Group of the Italian Association for Chemical Engineering (AIDIC) held its annual congress on the 28th of February 2007 at the ENI’s convention centre in San Donato Milanese (Milan).

The recent revisions of the Community Codes on Medicinal Products have resulted in a number of changes to the procedure for granting marketing authorisation for generic medicinal products, both human and veterinary.

After a series of false starts and protracted delays, an abbreviated approval pathway for generic biopharmaceuticals may soon gain traction in the U.S. The new Democrat-controlled Congress, which takes the helm January 1, moves into key leadership positions several legislators who favour easing the entry of generics to the U.S. market.

The paper describes the multi-step synthesis of a lead compound, precursor of potent inhibitors of Kinases.

Preliminary results from a commercially available continuous flow microwave reactor designed specifically for scale-up are presented here.

Microwave assisted solvent-free organic synthesis in nitrogen acylation, heterocycles synthesis and pericyclic reactions is reviewed, covering only those reactions performed by irradiation of reagents without solvents or any solid support.

In the past few years, using microwave energy to heat and drive chemical reactions has become increasingly popular in the medicinal and organic chemistry community.

DSM Pharma Chemicals – a business unit of DSM Pharmaceutical Products –provides state-of-the-art custom manufacturing production services at three European sites. DSM capabilities are diverse and flexible.

Endocrine disrupters are environmental or dietary compounds that alter the functions of the endocrine system.

The traditional round-bottomed glass flask used in chemical laboratories needs to compete nowadays against microstructured devices (microreactors) enabling chemists to perform chemical reactions in a continuous mode.

Industrially, SO3 is produced in dilute gaseous form in a contact-process by the strongly exothermal oxidation of SO2 where the catalyst bed is divided into reaction stages for cooling in between the stages.

Informal science laboratories are gaining increasing interest, with the basic idea to provide hands-on experiments that may facilitate motivation of young people for scientific problems.

It is a universal truth that research, development and manufacture of potent active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and products requires both “hardware” ( facilities, equipment and engineering controls) and “software” (programs, practices and procedures) to adequately protect personnel and the environment.

The development of DNA biochip technology has made it possible to miniaturise binding assays to a remarkable extent as well as enabling the simultaneous detection of thousands of different analytes from minute amounts of sample materials.

MALDI-TOF MS fingerprinting is a modern method for microorganism identification and classification. After a simple sample preparation procedure profile mass spectra are acquired which are typical for given microorganisms.