Perspective on Solvent Use in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Solvent use consistently accounts for between 80 and 90% of mass utilization in a typical pharmaceutical/fine chemicals (non-polymer) batch chemical operation. Moreover, within these operations, solvents play a dominant role in the overall toxicity profile of any given process; i.e. on a mass basis, solvents account for the largest proportion of chemicals of concern used in the process. However, for the typical synthetic organic chemist, solvents are just a medium in which a reaction takes place; the interest is in the reactivity and building of a molecule, not in the means by which this is carried out. So, in a typical retrosynthetic analysis, solvent and solvent-reactant interactions, separability, and…

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  GlaxoSmithKline