A Perspective on Continuous Flow Chemistry in the Pharmaceutical Industry

TLDR

Continuous flow manufacturing is an innovative platform gaining momentum in pharma, offering faster, safer, greener reactions with a smaller footprint and higher quality, yet translating these advantages into commercially relevant processes remains a major industry challenge. The review aims to identify opportunities for applying flow solutions to existing pharmaceutical processes to advance the technology’s commercial adoption. It examines industrial hurdles, stresses the need for education, and presents recent 2018–2019 examples where flow technology has been successfully implemented.

Abstract

Continuous flow manufacture is an innovative technology platform, which is gaining momentum within the pharmaceutical industry. The key advantages of continuous flow include faster and safer reactions, which can be more environmentally friendly, smaller footprint, better quality product, and critically, the ability to perform chemistry that is difficult or impossible to do in batch mode. Globally, significant efforts have been made to develop the manufacturing flexibility and robustness of processes used to produce chemicals in a continuous way, yet despite these scientific developments, a major challenge for industry is the established application of flow technology to commercially relevant examples. The identification of opportunities to apply flow solutions to current processes is also critical to the success of this new technology for pharmaceutical and fine chemical companies. This review highlights industrial hurdles and the importance of education and showcases recent (2018–2019) and relevant industrial examples where utilization of flow technology has been successfully performed.