Catalysis is fundamental to the development of sustainable processes in chemical
development, allowing innovative, efficient routes to API molecules that are increasing in
complexity. However, a majority of the catalytic reactions that we develop use platinum group metal
(PGM) catalysts: currently 85% of our routes in late-stage development at AstraZeneca use a
precious metal catalyst. There is a significant environmental footprint associated with the extraction
and isolation of these scarce metals as well as uncertainty in supply.
Replacing these catalysts with those derived from earth-abundant base metals such as Fe, Ni, Cu
would significantly reduce the environmental impact of our processes along with other benefits in
terms of cost and toxicity. High-throughput experimentation has been utilised to investigate and
optimise a range of earth-abundant metal catalysed reactions in the current AstraZeneca portfolio,
including successful examples for nickel-catalysed borylation and Suzuki reactions on complex
molecules in late-stage development. These have been demonstrated to provide significant cost and
sustainability savings to the projects, aligning with AstraZeneca's carbon zero ambition.
development, allowing innovative, efficient routes to API molecules that are increasing in
complexity. However, a majority of the catalytic reactions that we develop use platinum group metal
(PGM) catalysts: currently 85% of our routes in late-stage development at AstraZeneca use a
precious metal catalyst. There is a significant environmental footprint associated with the extraction
and isolation of these scarce metals as well as uncertainty in supply.
Replacing these catalysts with those derived from earth-abundant base metals such as Fe, Ni, Cu
would significantly reduce the environmental impact of our processes along with other benefits in
terms of cost and toxicity. High-throughput experimentation has been utilised to investigate and
optimise a range of earth-abundant metal catalysed reactions in the current AstraZeneca portfolio,
including successful examples for nickel-catalysed borylation and Suzuki reactions on complex
molecules in late-stage development. These have been demonstrated to provide significant cost and
sustainability savings to the projects, aligning with AstraZeneca's carbon zero ambition.
