Success stories

The 12 principles won t all be met in most real-world applications, but they provide a worthy goal to aim for and they can make chemists think more carefully about the environmental implications of their work. Success stories are already occurring, and more are in progress. Approximately 7 million pounds per year of ibuprofen (6 billion tablets ) is now made by a "green" process that produces approximately 99% less waste than the process it replaces. Only three steps are needed, the anhydrous HF solvent used in the first step is recovered and reused, and the second and third steps are catalytic. 

An early success story in the field of catalytic asymmetric synthesis is the Monsanto Process for the commercial synthesis of l-DOPA (4) (see Scheme 1), a rare amino acid that is effective in the treatment of Parkinson s disease.57 The Monsanto Process, the first commercialized catalytic asymmetric synthesis employing a chiral transition metal complex, was introduced by W. S. Knowles and coworkers and has been in operation since 1974. This large-scale process for the synthesis of l-DOPA (4) is based on catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation, and its development can be... 

Besides occasionally sharing their success stories with mentees, mentors might also want to reveal failures and mistakes they have made. This provides mentees with a more realistic view of certain business situations. They are then in a better position to appreciate the problems they might encounter whilst pursuing a goal. 

Figure 16.1 Some success stories of structure-based design.

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