To mark its 10th anniversary, Drug Discovery & Development magazine invited industry vendors to reflect on the history and made predictions about future of the industry. Featured here are verbatim comments from this company.
GalChimia
Headquarters
O Pino (A Coruna) Spain
Years in Drug Research
7 Years
Spokesperson
Dr. Jacobo Cruces, R&D Manager
Web site
About the company
GalChimia is the leading Spanish provider of small molecule Custom Synthesis, Contract Research, Process Development and Reaction Optimization services to the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industry. Led by an expert, dedicated team of 20 organic synthetic chemists, the company closely collaborates with clients and guarantees absolute confidentiality. GalChimia was founded in 2001.
The company’s line of business as it was 10 years ago. Changes in life science/drug research that influenced business.
GalChimia started by offering only custom synthesis and contract research. Custom synthesis competence in Asia was still low and thus custom synthesis of low-value compounds was still a profitable business. As India and China grew more proficient in these types of services, we evolved and began offering custom synthesis of high-value compounds (IP protected, long and risky synthetic routes, etc.) where a high quality/price ratio is a must. To meet the needs of our clients we also introduced process development and reaction optimization services to cover the development and production stages.
Scientific challenges in the next 10 years.
The common perception is that all problems in organic synthetic chemistry have been solved. This is not true. Certain routes of syntheses take too long, requiring multiple steps because some simple transformations are tedious. We’re working on discovering new, useful tools to add to the synthetic organic chemistry tool kit that shorten these reactions, for example, to just one step. Just like a mechanic can use an automatic screwdriver to fix something faster, we are building new tools to build new molecules faster.
Factor(s) that drove the development of technologies during the last 10 years and greatest area of growths.
We have seen two technologies drive the advancement and speed of drug research: microwave chemistry and parallelization.
Currently, a lot of companies use microwave chemistry, the application of microwaves to heat chemicals in a reaction for advantages such as speed or improved yields. But when we first founded GalChimia, this technology was only just being published and being presented at symposiums. Now microwave chemistry is widespread.
In the last 15 years there has also been an explosion in parallelization and combinatorial chemistry--making 100,000 compounds or more at once. Now, companies are focusing less on throughput--for example making 1,000 or 100 compounds simultaneously--but making them better from a chemistry and biology point of view.
Bold Prediction: Where will drug research technology be in 10 years?
In 10 years, organic chemists will be able to build small molecules 10 times faster. Their labs will be transformed with cheap bench top machines that use robotics to automate parallel reactions. These reactors will comprise a multitude of tasks: cooling, heating, filtration, hydrogenation etc. putting every tool at a chemists’ finger tips.
