Active ingredients fine chemicals

While the production of fine chemicals is defined by a high added value and relatively low production volumes, specialty chemicals are formulations of several compounds containing one fine chemical or a mixture of several fine chemicals as active ingredients. Specialty chemicals are usually sold under brand names and are identified by their performance. For example, the active ingredients of a drug are fine chemicals, whereas the formulated drug itself is a specialty chemical. 

Fine chemical companies are generally either small and privately held or divisions of larger companies, such as Eastman Fine Chemicals (United States) and Lonza (Switzerland). Examples of large public fife science companies, which market fine chemicals as a subsidiary activity to their production for captive use, are Hoffmann-La Roche, Sandoz, and Boehringer Ingelheim, which produce and market bulk vitamins and liquid crystal intermediates, dyestuff intermediates, and bulk active ingredients, respectively. Table 3 fists some representative companies having an important fine chemical business. 

Fine chemicals are products of high and well-defined purity, which are manufactured in relatively small amounts and sold at relatively high price. Although a question of taste, reasonable limits would be lOkton/year and 10/kg (Stinson, 1998, Section 2.1 of this book). Fine chemicals can be divided in two basic groups those that are used as intermediates for other products, and those that by their nature have a specific activity and are used based on their performance characteristics. Performance chemicals are used as active ingredients or additives in formulations, and as aids in processing. 

Similarly, low volume chemicals are classified according to whether they are sold primarily on the basis of specification or performance. Specialties are generally formulations that are sold on the basis of their performance and their prices reflect their value rather than cost of production. Producers of specialty chemicals often provide extensive technical service to their customers. Examples of specialty chemicals include pharmaceuticals, pesticides, flavours and fragrances, specialty polymers, etc. Fine chemicals, on the other hand, are produced to customer specifications and are often intermediates or active ingredients for specialty chemicals, e.g. pharmaceutical and agrochemical intermediates and bulk actives. 

Specialty chemicals are formulations of chemicals containing one or more fine chemicals as active ingredients. They are identified according to performance properties. Customers are trades outside the chemical industry and the public. Specialty chemicals are usually sold under brand names. Suppliers have to provide product information. Subcategories are adhesives, agrochemicals, biocides, catalysts, dyestuffs and pigments, enzymes, electronic chemicals, flavors and fragrances, food and feed additives, pharmaceuticals, and specialty polymers (see Chapter 11). 

The distinction between fine and specialty chemicals is net. The former are sold on the basis of what they are the latter, on what they can do. In the life science industry, the active ingredients of drugs are fine chemicals, the formulated drugs specialties (see next chapter). 

Electronic chemicals (see Section 11.4) provide another illustrative example of the difference between fine and specialty chemicals Merck KGaA produces a range of individual fine chemicals as active substances for liqnid crystals in a modern multipurpose plant in Darmstadt, Germany. An example is (trans,trans)-A-[difluoromethoxy)-3,5-difluorophenyl]-4 -propyl-l,l -bicyclohexyl. Merck ships the active ingredients to its secondary plants in Japan, Sonth Korea, and Taiwan, where they are compounded into liquid crystal formulations. These specialties have to comply with stringent use-related specifications (electrical and color properties, etc.) of the Asian producers of consumer electronics such as cellular phones, DVD players, and flat-screen TV sets. 

Pharmaceuticals containing more than 2000 different active ingredients are in commerce today a sizable number of them are sourced from the fine-chemical industry. They can be classified according to different criteria. In order of relevance to the fine-chemical industry, they are described in the following paragraphs ... 

Apart from life sciences, speciality chemicals—and therefore also their active ingredients, commodities, or fine chemicals—are used ubiquitously, in both... 

Fine chemicals are also identified by their chemical structure. However, they usually have complex production processes and consequently a high value add. Typical examples are amino acids and pharmaceutical active ingredients but also highly concentrated forms of commodity chemicals. 

The potential for industrial biotech has been broadly recognized and chemical and biotech companies are starting to move into this space and grow their presence. In fact, about five percent of the estimated USD 1.2 trillion total chemical sales already depend on biotech. The global market for bio-based ethanol alone is worth USD 15 billion other basic organic molecules such as citric acid (USD two billion) and lactic acid are produced by fermentation, and so are all but three amino acids (approx. USD four billion) various basic, advanced and active pharmaceutical ingredients produced by the fine chemical industry are worth USD 7.5 billion the attractive enzyme market has reached USD two billion in... 

While these divestitures were taking place, traditional fine chemicals manufacturers were able to enjoy new contracts for the synthesis of active ingredients from companies involved in crop protection products and pharmaceuticals. Many European companies were the beneficiaries of the new trend. In Switzerland the leader was Lonza, which became independent in 1999 when its mother company, Alu Suisse, merged with the Canadian aluminum manufacturer Alcan. Other Swiss firms—such as Siegfried AG, EMS-Dottikon, Cilag, and Orgamol, Rohner, now part of Dynamit Nobel—took advantage of these developments. Clariant entered the field on a big scale in 2000 with its acquisition of BTP. 

Production of fine chemicals and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) will also continue to benefit from the judicious application of biocatalysis, in many cases as part of multistep synthetic schemes. Of particular relevance is the increasing demand for chirally pure pharmaceuticals, driven by concerns about the unwanted side-effects often associated with racemic drugs. Another growth area is likely to be the production of biologically active carbohydrates, traditionally requiring complex and expensive chemistries for production, to be used as pharmaceuticals, in infant formula, and as nutritional supplements. 

In space ireaiment ihe insecticide is dispersed as a cloud of fine droplets. This is the main method by which flying insects are controlled, as the chemical is rapidly brought into contact with the insect. As a result of this immediate and intimate contact only small quantities of non-residual active ingredient are necessary. It is important to apply compounds which not only produce a rapid knockdown effect (mainly pyrethrins and some synthetic pyrclhroids, but also provide subsequent mortality,... 

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