DSM Pharmaceutical Products, a leading provider of contract development and manufacturing services is pleased to announce today their nomination to receive the CPhI Innovation Award. DSM has been nominated for their work on the use of MonoPhos™ ligands in asymmetric hydrogenations. The CPhI Innovation Award has been established as the showcase for exceptional work in developing research and technology. The CPhI Innovation Awards are setting the standards for the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.

The MonoPhos™ family of ligands has revolutionalized the methodology that is used to prepare a wide range of chiral molecules in high yield and with excellent selectivity. Unlike more traditional ligands used for asymmetric hydrogenations, the DSM ligands can be made in fewer steps, thus increasing production time. The simple synthesis of the MonoPhos™ ligands and the ability to mix them for synergistic effects in a reaction provides diversity that is not available with the traditional families of ligands.

The DSM approach has allowed the whole procedure, from preparation of the ligand, catalyst preparation and hydrogenation to be performed by a robot in apparatus that runs 96 reactions at a time. This allows hundreds of reactions to be run in a week to find the optimal reaction conditions. This new methodology allows for a more efficient production time with decreased costs.

Ronald Gebhard, R&D Director, DSM Pharmaceutical Products comments, “The parallel approach to ligand synthesis and screening enables an increased time factor benefit to our customers. Instead of taking weeks to prepare a traditional bisphosphine ligand, our ligands can be made in a few hours. This also has advantages when we move to commercial product as preparation of the ligand has been simplified.”

This methodology has been integrated from research, into commercial production and is currently being used at the DSM’s large scale manufacturing facility located in Linz, Austria.

Johannes de Vries, DSM Principal Scientist Homogeneous Catalysis, comments, “The use of MonoPhos™ ligands is not only limited for large-scale asymmetric hydrogenations. In collaboration with the University of Groningen, DSM is investigating other exciting applications of catalysts including the formation of carbon-carbon bonds, an approach that could result in shorter synthesis of drug compounds.”

About DSM Pharmaceutical Products
DSM Pharmaceutical Products is a global provider of high quality custom contract manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. DSM Pharmaceutical Products provides contract manufacturing services including: advanced intermediates, active ingredients (API's), amino acids and derivatives, mammalian cell culture production (fed-batch and perfusion) of monoclonal antibodies, proteins, vaccines, finished dose manufacturing of solid dose, scheduled drugs, liquids, aseptic liquid and lyophilized products.

From clinical to commercial services, DSM focuses the right resources on providing the highest level of service and quality while applying innovative solutions to satisfy customers’ unique manufacturing needs.