Avecia in catalyst distribution agreement with Sigma-Aldrich

Avecia has reached an agreement with Sigma-Aldrich covering the worldwide distribution of Avecia's Pd EnCat encapsulated palladium catalysts.

Under the agreement, the two companies intend to develop and commercialise additional new EnCat products. The Pd EnCat line will be available from Sigma-Aldrich with effect from 13 August, 2004.

In discovery applications, Pd EnCat technology offers the benefits of reduced toxic metal contamination in new product candidates, as well as easy materials handling and higher throughput from process automation. Products can also be used in flow processing applications. In commercial scale applications, Pd EnCat can reduce solvent consumption and waste and can improve catalyst recovery, reuse and recycling. The versatile technology enables the palladium content and ligand type, as well as the bead size and structure, to be tailored to suit a particular chemical process, Avecia says.

'Response to Pd EnCat in customer trials has been excellent. The agreement with Sigma-Aldrich puts a major distribution network in place to build on this,' said Avecia Pharmaceuticals' vice president, Dr Pete Jackson. 'Sigma-Aldrich's expertise will also help to prioritise the planned extension of the product range for the benefit of their extensive customer base.'

Pd EnCat was first commercialised by Avecia following a successful research collaboration with Professor Steven Ley from Cambridge University and teams from Syngenta and AstraZeneca. Other key advantages include high selectivity in hydrogenation and transfer hydrogenation reactions, and good levels of activity in C-C bond forming reactions.