VIO Chemicals Obtains a Government Research Grant for Drug Discovery

ZURICH - June 30, 2014 - PRLog -- In a project that has been awarded a research grant of over USD 500’000 from the Swiss government’s Commission for Innovation and Technology (CTI), VIO Chemicals AG and SpiroChem AG, two Swiss SMEs, joined forces to develop cleaner, safer and cheaper chemical technologies. One of these technologies – flow chemistry - is a method to synthetically produce new classes of molecules more efficiently.

“Our pharmaceutical customers are always looking to speed up their drug discovery programs and development processes to maximize the period of commercial exclusivity of their drug on the market. We are using this research to transfer scientific findings into commercial excellence for them”, says Dr. Thomas Fessard, CEO of Zurich-based SpiroChem AG.

Together with SpiroChem AG, a team of post-doctoral fellows at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) is working on the development of this new technology under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Erick M. Carreira, professor of Organic Chemistry at ETHZ and co-founder of SpiroChem AG.

The primary objective of the work is to develop novel and cost-effective proprietary routes to several classes of molecules, including the quinuclidines and other small compact modules. Some of these molecules are increasingly used in drug discovery and already incorporated in the synthesis of clinical-phase drug candidates. Some quinuclidine-containing drugs have been present on the market for over 20 years and are facing loss of exclusivity, which creates the need for more efficient and economical processes.

The second step for the project is to develop flow chemistry techniques in the production of intermediates for the use in pharmaceutical manufacturing on a commercial scale. “We aim to be able to start production of the molecules using the new technology on a commercial scale by spring 2015. We anticipate the new techniques to result in increased productivity, which we can pass on to our customers as a reduction in the cost of goods”, says Dr. Dimitrios Kalias, CEO of the Zurich-based VIO Chemicals AG, which brings the expertise and long-term experience of custom manufacturing of intermediates and APIs for the pharmaceutical industry to the project.