Home Applications of Flow Chemistry for API Synthesis
Vol. 40 | Vol. 40(4) - July / August 2022 | FLOW CHEMISTRY

Applications of Flow Chemistry for API Synthesis

by cyb2025
M. Muldowney
api synthesis
continuous
FLOW CHEMISTRY
PR&D
scale-up

MARK MULDOWNEY
Head of Technology & Innovation, Sterling Pharma Solutions Dudley, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

Batch production remains the mainstay of the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector, and much has been discussed about how flow chemistry has the potential to offer economic and technological advantages, as well as safety benefits when handling volatile or hazardous materials.
There are now several examples of steps in API syntheses being carried out under continuous conditions, and this article will examine real-world cases where the technology has been implemented positively; what barriers exist to wider implementation in the industry; and how flow chemistry can be utilised as an important tool for chemical process development.

Flow chemistry as an approach and term has been used since the 1970s, but it was not until the turn of the millennium that the term became common in relation to fine chemical synthesis, as it was explored for application in the pharmaceutical industry. By comparison the Haber–Bosch process for ammonia synthesis, as well as hydroformylations as continuous flow processes are used at considerable scale, and have been for some time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As head of technology and innovation at Sterling, Mark Muldowney is responsible for broadening the CDMO’s technology capabilities and introducing new ways of working in R&D and production.
Having joined Sterling as a development chemist in 1995, he has over 25 years’ experience of taking projects from laboratory to pilot to commercial scale.
He has a PhD in chemistry and is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Chemical Society.

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