The Medicines for All Initiative: A Flow-based Synthesis of Nevirapine

About the Speaker
Dr. Frank Gupton is a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and holds joint appointments in the Departments of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering. He also serves as Department Chair of the Chemical and Life Science Engineering Department and is the Director of the Institute for Engineering and Medicine at VCU. Dr. Gupton received his Bachelor’s of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Richmond and graduate degrees in organic chemistry from Georgia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University. His thirty year industrial career has centered on the development and commercialization of chemical processes for pharmaceutical and agricultural applications. As Executive Director of Chemical Process Development at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals he led the development and commercialization of the chemical process for the production of Nevirapine, a widely prescribed anti-viral medication for the treatment of AIDS. Dr. Gupton’s research group is currently focused on the development and evaluation of new heterogeneous catalysts that can be incorporated into continuous flow reactor systems for pharmaceutical applications.
AbstractThe Medicines for All Initiative employs an interdisciplinary approach to chemical process development that holistically examines the chemical structure of drug targets and determines a set of low cost starting materials that can be used to assemble the molecule. The team then defines the best chemistry and technology to develop the lowest cost manufacturing route. Continuous automation and system monitoring capabilities are integrated with the new chemistry to further reduce direct costs, which provides an agnostic platform for active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) process development. These principals were applied towards the development of a low cost process for nevirapine, the active ingredient in a widely prescribed treatment for HIV-infected patients. The streamlined synthesis includes the preparation of the two pyridine precursors from very low cost raw materials. The condensation of the two pyridine fragments and subsequent cyclization into the drug substance is carried out in a single unit operation in high yield.