Ecological synthesis of pharmaceutically relevant compounds

Uniqsis reports that the Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano (Italy) has invested in a FlowLab™ Scale continuous flow reactor to assist them in 'green' chemical synthesis of pharmaceutically-relevant compounds.

The Process Intensification & Flow Chemistry group of Dr. Gianvito Vilé evaluated different commercial flow reactors offering integrated synthesis, work-up and analysis capabilities before selecting a Uniqsis FlowLab™ continuous flow reactor system.

Dr. Gianvito Vilé said “My group uses continuous-flow technologies for the synthesis of pharmaceutically-relevant compounds. Our aim is to apply green chemistry principles to develop novel pharmaceutical compounds that protect human health while minimising impact on the environment. To this end, over the last 8 years, we have been doing pioneering research in the field of flow chemistry, first discovering highly-cited catalytic methods for flow hydrogenations and, later, using flow chemistry for the automated production of libraries for hit-to-lead phase in drug discovery. The investment in a new flow chemistry system was to enable the group to stay at the forefront of ecologically sound pharmaceutical synthesis".

Dr. Vilé added "We were interested in a system which was highly versatile. Having worked with almost every system on the market, I chose the FlowLab™ system due to its favourable cost and competitive specifications. Also, we wanted a flow instrument able to operate at high pressure and temperatures, that could be complemented with low temperature, photochemistry, and electrochemistry modules. Backed by Uniqsis’s strong technical and applications support, the FlowLab™ system was an obvious choice".

Sales Director of Uniqsis, Steve Evans commented “We are delighted to welcome the renowned research group of Dr. Vilé to the growing community of leading academic research labs using the FlowLab™ continuous flow reactor for synthesis of novel pharmaceutical compounds”.

FlowLab is a versatile flow chemistry system and can be configured with up to 4 pump channels with a choice of 10ml/min, or 50ml/min pump heads for higher scale applications. It may also be configured with any combination of up to 4 individual heated/cooled reactor modules. By selecting from the HotCoil™ and HotChip™ heated reactor modules, and the Polar Bear Plus Flow™ and Polar Bear Plus GSM™ cryogenic modules (with an operating range from -40°C to 300°C) the FlowLab offers unrivalled flexibility. The FlowLab can also be integrated with the Uniqsis Flow-UV™ inline UV-VIS spectrophotometer to monitor steady state conditions in real time.

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