The Award-winning Project
PharmaBlock’s award-winning project was its innovative continuous process for producing 3-oxocyclobutane-1-carboxylic acid. This achievement is significant because this product is used in the API synthesis of multiple marketed drugs. Two metric tons of the product were successfully produced in ten days by using this continuous process. Compared to the conventional batch process, PharmaBlock’s novel continuous process, featuring decarboxylation, decolorization, extraction, and separation, helps achieve 20-fold energy consumption, workspace, and workforce efficiency with much lower PMI.
PharmaBlock’s project team will be honored and presented with a plaque in recognition at the Annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference to be held on June 13-15, 2023 in Long Beach, CA.
Notably, the project team still continues to innovate and optimize the continuous process. A prototype that integrates additional functions, including raw material auto weighing & feeding, concentration, recrystallization, and filtration into the self-designed control system is now built and in operation. PharmaBlock plans to scale-up this technology to support end-to-end commercial production.
PharmaBlock’s Advancements in Green Chemistry and Continuous Manufacturing
At PharmaBlock, green chemistry and continuous manufacturing are essential components of its commitment to providing efficient, high-quality, and reliable services to partners, and fulfilling its social responsibility. PharmaBlock has developed a comprehensive suite of solutions, featuring flow chemistry, micropacked bed hydrogenation, biocatalysis, heterogeneous catalysis, etc., to reduce the carbon footprint, address the chemical challenges, and make pharmaceutical production more efficient and safe.
The award-winning project is one of the successes of continuous flow chemistry technology implementation at PharmaBlock. From a sustainability perspective, continuous flow chemistry can address various green chemistry and engineering principles raised by ACS GCI, including waste minimization, energy efficiency, process safety, etc. PharmaBlock team has been developing and mastering this technology, and applying it to more than 40 reaction types. So far, the team has supported hundreds of development and manufacturing projects, including commercial and GMP manufacturing. In addition, the team is able to develop, engineer, and build continuous flow reaction devices in-house for diverse reaction conditions, volumes, materials, and mixing mechanisms, and enable the production at metric ton scale. The continuous manufacturing GMP workshop at PharmaBlock Zhejiang Site further enhanced the large-scale continuous manufacturing capability and capacity.
Continuous manufacturing GMP workshop at PharmaBlock Zhejiang Site
“The CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award encourages CDMO companies to take a prominent role and proactively turn to green chemistry for more innovative solutions,” said Dr. Minmin Yang, President of PharmaBlock, “At PharmaBlock, we are dedicated to providing better products and services through innovation of chemistry and low-carbon technology in R&D and manufacturing. We are proud of our work and will continue to pioneer green chemistry to benefit our partners and contribute towards a sustainable future.”
About ACS GCI PR and CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award
The ACS Green Chemistry Institute (GCI) operates within the Office of Sustainability and is part of the Division of Scientific Advancement at the American Chemical Society. The ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable (PR) is the leading organization dedicated to catalyzing the integration of green chemistry and engineering in the pharmaceutical industry.
The CMO Excellence in Green Chemistry Award seeks to recognize outstanding efforts by CMO companies in green chemistry in support of pharmaceutical research, development, and manufacturing that demonstrate compelling environmental, safety, and efficiency improvements.
About PharmaBlock
PharmaBlock (Stock code: 300725.SZSE) is a global, fully integrated CDMO company that provides development and manufacturing solutions for drug substances and products, throughout the development and commercial stages. Officially operated in 2008, PharmaBlock has partnered with almost all the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and hundreds of small to medium-sized biotech companies worldwide. Its ever-changing mission is to provide better products and services through innovation of chemistry and low carbon technology in R&D and manufacturing, and eventually to support partners to accelerate drug discovery & development, moving new molecules into the market fast.
Related Links:
Awards » ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable Portal (acsgcipr.org)