Foundation

Green and sustainable methodologies are beginning to have profound effect on the way companies operate and now more industries are embedding sustainability in their longer term strategies. The pharmaceutical industry is arguably one of the leading sectors in the application of green chemistry to business. This Foundation topic contains introductory material that provides a basic appreciation of the key concepts that should be considered when embarking upon the greening of a chemical synthesis.  This topic is supplemented with a range of more in-depth topics that allow the user to study these key concepts in greater detail.

This resource has been created as part of the IMI funded CHEM21 project (Chemical Manufacturing Methods for the 21st Century Pharmaceutical Industries)*, which aims to develop new reactions or methodologies with improved green metrics over existing tools to improve the sustainability of the syntheses of pharmaceutical products.  The project has a strong emphasis on education and training both of existing and future generations of medicinal and process chemists.  Although this resource has been created with a focus on ‘greening’ the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), it is also of relevance to other industries and anyone who is interested in learning more about greener methodologies.

* CHEM21 has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement n°115360, resources of which are composed of financial contribution from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) and EFPIA companies’ in kind contribution.