Ask Us Anything: Eric Fang On Lithiation Chemistry

Eric Fang is General Manager and site head of Snapdragon Chemistry, a Cambrex company, in Waltham, MA. A co-founder of the business and a recognized leader in continuous manufacturing, he leads a multidisciplinary team applying flow chemistry and related technologies to complex synthetic APIs.

Here he turns to lithiation chemistry, which over the past two decades has moved from niche use to a central pillar of small-molecule drug synthesis. Such reactions are fundamentally difficult to scale in batch: as vessels grow, the falling surface-to-mass ratio limits heat transfer, making temperature and addition control a serious challenge. Flow chemistry suits them naturally, thanks to its favorable surface-to-mass ratios — the missing piece being how mixing occurs in a static system without dynamic agitation. Over the past decade, Snapdragon has characterized how static mixers scale with throughput, allowing these reactions to move from milligrams to metric tons and translating discovery chemistry seamlessly into large-scale production.