Pharm-Eco to set up new catalytic process screening centre

Pharm-Eco, Johnson Matthey Pharmaceutical Materials is to create a Catalytic Process Screening Center.

Located at Pharm-Eco's Devens site in Massachusetts, US, the new facility will allow Pharm-Eco to provide clients with faster and efficiently optimised processes that will accelerate their leads to the clinic.

The centre will employ the latest in automation for developing catalyst technology. Services will include high throughput catalytic reaction screening, chiral catalytic transformations, hydrogenation, coupling reactions (Heck, Suzuki, amination, Sonogashira, carbonylation), selective oxidation, hydroformylation, and hydrosilylation. It will also provide support to Pharm-Eco's medicinal chemistry and chemical development groups, streamlining the small and large-scale synthesis of compounds and APIs for clients.

'Our goal at Pharm-Eco is to utilise the latest in synthetic technologies, including catalytic reactions to expedite our clients' drug discovery and development processes,' said Dr Daniel J. Coughlin, director of Pharm-Eco's medicinal chemistry group and head of the new centre. 'This centre will make Pharm-Eco a leader in the application of innovative organic chemistry to our pharmaceutical clients' needs.'