Development of a reliable, efficient and economic chiral drug separation process

手性是现代制药、食品和农业行业的一个主要问题。手性药物的销售额接近全球药品销售额的三分之一。手性药物的常规化学生产方法产生一种外消旋混合物，其中含有化学成分相同但在空间上具有不同结构取向的对映体。一种异构体对人体有治疗作用，而它的对映体是有害的或无效的，这是很常见的。因此，分离这两种对映体对提高药物的安全性和耐受性有明显的好处。近年来，由于FDA的新法规要求手性药物必须尽可能纯净地含有单一的纯对映体，手性纯药物的重要性急剧上升。

Chirality is a major concern in the modern pharmaceutical, food and agricultural industries. The sale of chiral drugs is close to one-third of all drug sales worldwide. Ordinary chemical production methods for chiral drugs produce a racemic mixture containing enantiomers having identical chemical compositions but different structural orientations in space. It is quite common to find that one isomeric form has a therapeutic effect on the human body while its enantiomer is harmful or ineffective. Hence, there is obvious benefit from separating the two enantiomers to enhance drug's safety and tolerability. The importance of chirally pure drugs has risen dramatically in recent years due to new FDA regulations requiring that chiral drugs be as pure as possible containing a single pure enantiomer.