API manufacturing and environmental sustainability

Pharmaceutical industry’s evolution and history are fascinating (1, 2). Volumes can be written on how the industry and each company has shaped itself. Their evolution is a story. Discussion here is not about the companies but about the development of small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) (3), their manufacturing methods and environmental impact and how it can be minimized.

For ages and still, many vegetation plants and their extracts were and are used to cure many diseases. Genesis of the current pharmaceutical industry took place when the chemists of the early part of the last century working at dyes and colorant companies in Europe were able to synthesize the disease curing chemicals of the plants extracts. They also started to recognize the disease curing values of different fine/specialty chemicals.