Match-Making Reactors to Chemistry: A Continuous Manufacturing-Enabled Sequence to a Key Benzoxazole Pharmaceutical Intermediate

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Susanne, Flavien, Martin, Benjamin, Aubry, Michel, Sedelmeier, Joerg, Lima, Fabio, Sevinc, Serbuelent, Piccioni, Lorenzo, Haber, Julien, Schenkel, Berthold, Venturoni, Francesco

The focus of this study was to develop a chemical reaction sequence toward a key benzoxazole building block, required for clinical manufacturing of a lead candidate in the respiratory disease area. The chemistry consisted of initial low-temperature reactions with an organometallic reagent to...

Using Flow To Outpace Fast Proton Transfer in an Organometallic Reaction for the Manufacture of Verubecestat (MK-8931)

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Thaisrivongs, David A., Naber, John R., McMullen, Jonathan P.

We report that an organolithium addition to a chiral ketimine, which because of competitive proton transfer proceeds with only modest yield in batch, can be significantly improved in flow. The transformation was discovered to be highly mixing-sensitive but remarkably temperature-independent in...

Advancing Flow Chemistry Portability: A Simplified Approach to Scaling Up Flow Chemistry

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Lévesque, François, Rogus, Nicholas J., Spencer, Glenn, Grigorov, Plamen, McMullen, Jonathan P., Thaisrivongs, David A., Davies, Ian W., Naber, John R.

We report mixing characterization of five lab-scale and eight production-scale static mixers using a modified fourth Bourne reaction. An efficient inline method relying on UV–vis spectroscopy was developed to streamline analysis of the product distribution. As a result of these studies, we have...

Polymorphs, Particle Size, and a Pandemic: Development of a Scalable Crystallization Process for Molnupiravir, an Antiviral for the Treatment of COVID-19

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Bade, Rachel, Bothe, Jameson R., Sirota, Eric, Brunskill, Andrew P. J., Newman, Justin A., Zhang, Yongqian, Tan, Melissa, Zheng, Michelle, Brito, Gilmar, Poirier, Marc, Fier, Patrick S., Xu, Yingju, Ward, Michael D., Stone, Kevin, Lee, Ivan H., Gmitter, Andrew J., Bernardoni, Frank, Zompa, Michael A., Luo, Hanlin, Patel, Sanjaykumar, Masiuk, Tina, Mora, Jeff, Ni, Tong, Okoh, Grace A., Tarabokija, James, Liu, Jiaying, Lowinger, Michael B., Mahmood, Tariq

Molnupiravir is a small-molecule active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) prodrug of a nucleoside analog that was demonstrated to be efficacious for the treatment of patients with COVID-19. Early in the pandemic, Merck & Co. Inc. partnered with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics to accelerate the...

Continuous Selective Hydrogenation of Refametinib Iodo-nitroaniline Key Intermediate DIM-NA over Raney Cobalt Catalyst at kg/day Scale with Online UV–Visible Conversion Control

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Said, Mourad Ben, Baramov, Todor, Herrmann, Tanja, Gottfried, Michael, Hassfeld, Jorma, Roggan, Stefan

The continuous selective hydrogenation of the iodo-nitroaromatic refametinib active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) intermediate (2,3-difluoro-5-methoxy-6-nitro-phenyl)-(2-fluoro-4-iodo-phenyl)-amine (DIM-NA) to the corresponding iodo-aniline...

Scaling-up Electroorganic Synthesis Using a Spinning Electrode Electrochemical Reactor in Batch and Flow Mode

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Petrović, Nikola, Malviya, Bhanwar K., Kappe, C. Oliver, Cantillo, David

Technology for the rapid scale-up of synthetic organic electrochemistry from milligrams to multigrams or multi-100 g quantities is highly desirable. Traditional parallel plate flow electrolysis cells can produce large quantities of material, but transfer from batch to this flow technology...

End-to-end continuous flow synthesis and purification of diphenhydramine hydrochloride featuring atom economy, in-line separation, and flow of molten ammonium salts†

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Snead, David R., Jamison, Timothy F.

A continuous end-to-end synthesis and purification of diphenhydramine hydrochloride featuring atom economy and waste minimization is described. Combining a 1 : 1 molar ratio of the two starting material streams (chlorodiphenylmethane and N,N-dimethylaminoethanol) in the absence of additional...

Improved Continuous Flow Processing: Benzimidazole Ring Formation via Catalytic Hydrogenation of an Aromatic Nitro Compound

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Chen, Jian, Przyuski, Katrin, Roemmele, Renee, Bakale, Roger P.

In the development of a new route to bendamustine hydrochloride, the API in Treanda, the key benzimidazole intermediate 5 was generated via catalytic heterogeneous hydrogenation of an aromatic nitro compound using a batch reactor. Because of safety concerns and a site limitation on hydrogenation...

Comparison of a Batch and Flow Approach for the Lipase-Catalyzed Resolution of a Cyclopropanecarboxylate Ester, A Key Building Block for the Synthesis of Ticagrelor

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Hugentobler, Katharina G., Rasparini, Marcello, Thompson, Lisa A., Jolley, Katherine E., Blacker, A. John, Turner, Nicholas J.

In this study a batch reactor process is compared to a flow chemistry approach for lipase-catalyzed resolution of the cyclopropanecarboxylate ester (±)-3. (1R,2R)-3 is a precursor of the amine (1R,2S)-2 which is a key building block of the API ticagrelor. For both flow and batch operation, the...

Development of a Continuous Plug Flow Process for Preparation of a Key Intermediate for Brivanib Alaninate

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): LaPorte, Thomas L., Spangler, Lori Hamedi, Mourad, Lobben, Paul, Chan, Steven H., Muslehiddinoglu, Jale, Wang, Steve S. Y.

A thermal runaway potential was identified for the conversion of a tertiary alcohol to a hydroxypyrrolotriazine intermediate in the synthesis of brivanib alaninate. A continuous process was developed to mitigate the potential thermal runaway and allow for safer scale-up. This paper describes the...

Highly Efficient Synthesis of HIV NNRTI Doravirine

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Gauthier, Donald R., Sherry, Benjamin D., Cao, Yang, Journet, Michel, Humphrey, Guy, Itoh, Tetsuji, Tschaen, David M.

The development of an efficient and robust process for the production of HIV NNRTI doravirine is described. The synthesis features a continuous aldol reaction as part of a de novo synthesis of the key pyridone fragment. Conditions for the continuous flow aldol reaction were derived using...

Development of Pilot-Scale Continuous Production of an LY2886721 Starting Material by Packed-Bed Hydrogenolysis

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Zaborenko, Nikolay, Linder, Ryan J., Braden, Timothy M., Campbell, Bradley M., Hansen, Marvin M., Johnson, Martin D.

The design, development, and implementation of a pilot-scale continuous hydrogenolysis in a catalytic packed bed to generate a starting material is described. Control of a critical defluorination impurity under the reaction conditions has been achieved by reducing residence time inside the...

Development of a Direct Photocatalytic C–H Fluorination for the Preparative Synthesis of Odanacatib

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Halperin, Shira D., Kwon, Daniel, Holmes, Michael, Regalado, Erik L., Campeau, Louis-Charles, DiRocco, Daniel A., Britton, Robert

Late-stage C–H fluorination is an appealing reaction for medicinal chemistry. However, the application of this strategy to process research appears less attractive due to the formation and necessary purification of mixtures of organofluorines. Here we demonstrate that γ-fluoroleucine methyl...

Operation Strategy Development for Grignard Reaction in a Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Wong, Sze-Wing, Changi, Shujauddin M., Shields, Richard, Bell, Willis, McGarvey, Bernard, Johnson, Martin D., Sun, Wei-Ming, Braden, Tim M., Kopach, Michael E., Spencer, Richard D., Flanagan, Gordon, Murray, Michael

This paper presents a case study in establishing the operation space of a Grignard reaction in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR). The operation space is the multivariate space with the boundary defined by the proven acceptable range of every CSTR process parameter such as flow rates and...

Development and Manufacturing GMP Scale-Up of a Continuous Ir Catalyzed Homogeneous Reductive Amination Reaction

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): May, Scott A., Johnson, Martin D. Buser, Jonas Y. Campbell, Alison N. Frank, Scott A., Haeberle, Brian D., Hoffman, Philip C., Lambertus, Gordon R., McFarland, Adam D., Moher, Eric D., White, Timothy D., Hurley, D. Declan, Corrigan, Aoife P., Gowran, Olivia, Kerrigan, Niall G., Kissane, Marie G., Lynch, Regina R., Sheehan, Paul, Spencer, Richard D., Pulley, Shon R., Stout, James R.

The design, development, and scale-up of a continuous iridium-catalyzed homogeneous high pressure reductive amination reaction to produce 6, the penultimate intermediate in Lilly’s CETP inhibitor evacetrapib, is described. The scope of this report involves initial batch chemistry screening at...

Process analytics for the new era of continuous RNA manufacturing

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Botonjic-Sehic, Edita

In this article, Edita Botonjic-Sehic, Head of Process Analytics and Data Science at ReciBioPharm, examines the need for a digitally controlled continuous manufacturing process to correct the shortcomings of the current standard of batch processing. She highlights the critical role in-line...

Process Intensification via End-to-End Continuous Manufacturing of Atorvastatin Calcium Using an Integrated, Modular Reaction-Crystallization-Spherical Agglomeration-Filtration-Drying Process

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Parvaresh, Rojan, Nagy, Zoltan K.

Continuous manufacturing can show potential benefits over batch processing in lower turnaround times and smaller footprint in addition to higher productivity, adaptability, and consistent product quality. Although these possible benefits exist, there are also challenges in integrating the various...

Cleaning of direct compression continuous manufacturing equipment through displacement of API residues by excipients

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Patel, Dhavalkumar S, Méndez, Rafael, Romañach, Rodolfo J

This feasibility study evaluates a cleaning process designed to avoid the use of detergents and reduce operator exposure to the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). The continuous manufacturing equipment was cleaned using excipients to displace ibuprofen residues from the system. The cleaning...

Development and Scale-Up of a Continuous, High-Pressure, Asymmetric Hydrogenation Reaction, Workup, and Isolation

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Johnson, Martin D., May, Scott A., Calvin, Joel R., Remacle, Jacob, Stout, James R., Diseroad, William D., Zaborenko, Nikolay, Haeberle, Brian D., Sun, Wei-Ming, Miller, Michael T., Brennan, John

A fully continuous process including an asymmetric hydrogenation reaction operating at 70 bar hydrogen, aqueous extraction, and crystallization was designed, developed, and demonstrated at pilot scale. This paper highlights safety, quality, and throughput advantages of the continuous reaction and...

The Synthesis of Bromomethyltrifluoroborates through Continuous Flow Chemistry

23 Jul 2024 | Contributor(s): Broom, Toby, Hughes, Mark, Szczepankiewicz, Bruce G., Ace, Karl, Hagger, Ben, Lacking, Gary, Chima, Ranjit, Marchbank, Graeme, Alford, Gareth, Evans, Paul, Cunningham, Christopher, Roberts, John C., Perni, Robert B., Berry, Malcolm, Rutter, Andrew, Watson, Simon A

A continuous flow process was developed for the synthesis of potassium bromomethyltrifluoroborate, a key precursor for Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reagents. The continuous flow process was used to produce potassium bromomethyltrifluoroborate on scales from grams to kilograms, and the successful...

Blend uniformity monitoring in a continuous manufacturing mixing process for a low-dosage formulation using a stream sampler and near infrared spectroscopy

19 Jul 2024 | Peer-reviewed journal | Contributor(s): Rodolfo Romanach, Raúl S. Rangel-Gil, Juan M. Nasrala-Álvarez, Rafael Méndez

Continuous manufacturing has the potential to offer several benefits for the production of oral solid dosage forms, including reduced costs, low-scale equipment, and the application of process analytical technology (PAT) for real-time process control. This study focuses on the implementation of...

Inverse Method-Based Kinetic Modelling and Process Optimization of Reverse-Phase Chromatography for Molnupiravir Synthesis

18 Jul 2024 | Peer-reviewed journal | Contributor(s): Fernando Muzzio, George Tsilomelekis, Ravendra Singh, Athanasios Kritikos

Our research addresses the shift towards continuous manufacturing in the pharmaceutical industry, focusing on optimizing chromatographic separation for the synthesis of molnupiravir. Using an inverse method with six different inlet concentrations for a single objective function, we...

Advanced Manufacturing: An answer to supply chain woes?

18 Jul 2024 | Magazine | Contributor(s): Atul Dubey

Advanced Manufacturing technologies (AMTs) in the pharmaceutical industry have increasingly gained attention in the last decade. Amongst the AMTs, continuous manufacturing (CM) has had the most prominent impact so far. International efforts to define manufacturing approaches, terms, regulatory...

Control oriented modeling of twin-screw granulation in the ConsiGmaTM-25 production plant

09 Jul 2024 | Peer-reviewed journal | Contributor(s): Johannes Khinast, Martin Horn, Jakob Rehrl, Selma Celikovic, Johannes Poms

ConsiGmaTM-25 is a continuous production plant integrating a twin-screw granulation, fluid bed drying, granule conditioning, and a tableting unit. The particle size distribution (PSD), active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) content, and liquid content of wet granules after twin-screw...

Implementation of a fully integrated continuous manufacturing line for direct compression and coating at a commercial pharmaceutical facility – Part 1: Operational considerations and control strategy

25 Jun 2024 | Peer-reviewed journal | Contributor(s): Conway, Stephen L., Rosas, Juan G., Overton, Paul, Tugby, Neil, Cryan, Phillip, Witulski, Frank, Hurley, Samantha, Wareham, Laura, Tantuccio, Anthony, Ramasamy, Manoharan, Lalloo, Anita, Gibbs, Mason, Meyer, Robert F.

We implement a fully integrated continuous manufacturing (CM) line for direct compression and coating of a pharmaceutical oral solid dosage form in a commercial production facility. In this first paper of a two-part series, we describe process design and operational choices made to introduce CM...