The Growing Impact of Catalysis in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Catalysis has become increasingly important for the pharmaceutical industry. Catalysis is a critical technology that enables economical and environmentally-sound manufacturing processes. The development of a viable catalytic process for industrial scales is a complex task that requires the collaboration of multiple disciplines. In this article, a number of selected, noteworthy industrial examples are discussed to showcase the catalytic technologies that have been successfully practiced on large scales for active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) synthesis, involving transition metal catalysis, biocatalysis and organocatalysis. In addition, several examples of potential and future catalytic transformations are included which can be utilized in pharmaceutical industry in large-scale operational settings.