Abstract

New Tools and Recent Applications in Flow Chemistry at MSD

John Naber, Director, Flow Chemistry and Lab Automation, Process Research & Development, Merck & Co., Inc

The manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and their intermediates have recently rediscovered flow chemistry and continuous processing.  This renewed interest in these technologies has arisen from the anticipated benefit in supply chain economics and regulatory pressure in addition to the obvious opportunity for improved control including heat and mass transfer, process safety, access to high pressure and high temperature conditions, and use of supported catalysts and biocatalysts.

To take advantage of these benefits it is often necessary to develop new tools and platforms, including methods for characterizing fast mixing reactions or new reactors for scaling up photochemical reactions.  This talk will describe the development of some of these tools and the subsequent application of these tools to pharmaceutical manufacturing processes.