Developing a challenging process: What happens when your catalyst is not commercially available?

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For any industry involved in chemical manufacture – whether fine chemicals or pharmaceuticals – the development stage is arguably one of the most significant aspects to get right. It contributes significantly to both financial and time costs: drug development, for example, accounts for approximately two-thirds of the overall expenditure (1). However, it’s a crucial expense to get your innovations to market.
To lower your development costs, new methodologies are indispensable in overcoming any bottlenecks in your synthetic routes. One approach worth considering when evaluating and selecting potential routes is to incorporate catalytic steps. Catalysts can facilitate new routes incorporating for example cross-coupling reactions, giving you alternative and effective ways to access your target compounds in fewer steps. Streamlining your process in this manner can contribute to reduced costs and shorter project timelines.
Although catalysts can benefit your product development, they can be a hindrance too. Here we examine what happens if you are unable to obtain commercial scale quantities of your optimal catalyst, and possible solutions to get you back on track.