Almac, U.K. Universities and Industry Experts To Collaborate On Green Chemicals

Almac, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), has partnered with Bangor University (Wales) and Hockley International to develop a synthetic biology project in the hopes of creating innovative and more environmentally sound approaches to chemical development.

The project received $1.6M from the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council and Technology Strategy Board, which earmarked the funds specifically for the development and marketing of a chemical derived from a natural oil. The project is expected to last for three years.

Almac’s Northern Irish laboratories will conduct the research. Tom Moody, Head of Biocatalysis & Isotope Chemistry at Almac, expressed the companies’ enthusiasm with the partnership and renewed the company’s commitment to developing green chemical processes and products.

Biocatalysis is the main green chemical technology being used by pharmaceutical researchers. The process uses natural catalysts, such as protein enzymes, to make chemical changes to organic compounds.  This technology is attractive not only for its high yield production but also the low level of toxicity, both in its development and the administration of its products.

According to Katharine Sanderson, in an article published by Nature.com, “The pharmaceutical sector has embraced green chemistry the most enthusiastically because it has the most to gain.” This industry is “so competitive that no company can afford to ignore green chemistry’s potential savings.”

Sanderson claims that the largest barrier to green chemistry is mindset and resistance against years of traditional chemical training, but that mindset is slowly evolving. Detractors who worried that green chemistry was a trend are slowly being converted due to improved research and substantial investment.

Paul Anastas, an EPA chemist, explains that the goal of green chemistry is for “the term to go away, because it is simply the way chemistry is always done. Green chemistry should just be second nature, the default value.”

Almac’s newest collaboration comes on the heels of its $87M expansion in August which added 348 new jobs and investments in new technologies and equipment.

Enterprise, Trade, and Investment Minister of Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster, indicated that the investment was “good news for our growing life-sciences sector, which is gaining an international reputation for innovation and excellence.”