Reaction Development Using Amphoteric Reagents and Organocatalysts

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Most pharmaceuticals that cure diseases and improve our quality of life have emerged from intense medicinal chemistry efforts. Clinical candidates are selected from thousands of potential molecules, each of which has been designed, synthesized in an average of 8 steps, and thoroughly tested. Chemical innovation is at the core of this endeavour, and new technologies are rapidly adopted by industry in an effort to improve the efficiency of the drug discovery process. Our program is centred on the development of new reactions and catalysts for the synthesis of key structural subunits containing nitrogen atoms, which are present in >95% of drug candidates tested. Ultimately, these reactions provide more efficient formation of biologically-active molecules and enable the formation of new compounds for structure-activity relationship studies and drug development. These efforts are also important from a Green Chemistry perspective, as reactions that result in increased efficiency also inherently minimize the generation of “chemical waste”, which remains an important issue associated with the development and production of pharmaceuticals.