CSIR-IICT Unveils Safe Process Of Making APIs

Hyderabad, 10 March 2020:

Explosions in chemical units and boiler plants have been regular occurrences in the suburbs of the capital city due to accidents or mishandling of the materials causing serious injuries or even deaths in many a case over the years.

Scientists at the Council of Industrial & Scientific Research (CSIR)-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) have announced that it is now possible to synthesise complex chemical processes towards manufacture of drugs, pesticides and the likes in a much safer yet more productive manner.

Generally, most chemical processes for making of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) take days and require copious amounts of raw material which are then mixed in huge containers manually to get the end product. The process has to be repeated if the requirement is more and mishaps usually happen during the mixing of chemicals.

“We have been working on making APIs simple, safer and eco-friendly. We have succeeded in drastically reducing time in making six chemical compounds in our modern lab. It removes chance of any adverse reactions like explosions because there is no manual process involved and portions are smaller. This would be a boon to the industrial units as there is zero waste and costs are reduced,” avers IICT director S. Chandrasekhar.

Products of such ‘Integrated Continuous Flow Chemistry’ are: Alpha Lipoic Acid, an antioxidant taking just 15 minutes for synthesis; Daclatasvir, used for treating Hepatitis C virus takes about 41 minutes; Sildenafil is a phosphodiesterase inhibitor used for erectile dysfunction taking 13.5 minutes; same goes for Homosildenafil, another phosphodiesterase and Lodenafil, also a phosphodiesterase inhibitor used for erectile dysfunction.

Celecoxib is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and the API takes about 14.2 minutes for synthesis. “All these compounds take anywhere from three to 10 days for the synthesis to happen in the normal course of traditional methods and to get one kilo of product, you have to use 10 kilos of solvents. Here there is no waste at all,” say scientists - P. Srihari and Ajay Singh.

Scientists explain that ‘miniaturising’ of the syntheses helps in getting the required final product minus spillage and impurities as the entire integrated flow is automated or can be controlled via remote through a mobile. “We have developed a few indigenous devices to fine tune. Any amount of end product can be obtained in a short time,” they explain. IICT is ready to help units to develop their compounds in its lab and pass on the knowledge too, affirms Dr. Chandrasekhar. The Hindu