Winners recognized for developing greener products and processes
Clemson University researchers work on a bio-based polyurethane foam. The research won a 2021 EPA Green Chemistry Challenge Award. Credit: Srikanth Pilla
By Sam Lemonick, Chemical and Engineering News
Five winners of the 2021 US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Green Chemistry Challenge Awards (two of them New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giants) were announced at a virtual ceremony on June 15.
One academic researcher and four companies were honored for work that includes making pharmaceutical molecules more efficiently and safely, finding greener alternatives to chemicals found in consumer products, and creating a material that can absorb nutrient pollution and release it elsewhere as fertilizer.
The EPA’s Michal Freedhoff, principal deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, presented the awards at the Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference, which is being held online for the second year in a row.
“Talking about these success stories and finding ways to apply these practices in real-life situations is an investment in our future, ensuring all generations will have access to clean air, water, and land,” Freedhoff says in an email. Over the 25-year history of the awards, winners have collectively reduced the use of hazardous chemicals and solvents by hundreds of millions of pounds, and also reduced water use and air pollution, she says.
Two pharmaceutical companies with headquarters in New Jersey among the awards winners.
Merck & Co., which also won a Green Chemistry Challenge award in 2020, redesigned its process for making gefapixant citrate, a drug to treat chronic coughs. Merck scientists reported reducing both the amount and cost of materials needed to make gefapixant citrate, while increasing the yield by 44%. The researchers also claimed the new flow process is safer than the initial proposed route to the molecule.
Bristol Myers Squibb scientists developed with collaborators a new family of phosphorus reagents that can be used to make oligonucleotides, short DNA or RNA sequences that are being explored as possible new drugs ChemRxiv is a preprint server and the paper has not been peer-reviewed. The company claims the new reagents are safer than traditional alternatives and facilitate reduced solvent and reagent use.
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