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The use of agrochemical and pharmaceutical active ingredients is essential in our modern society. Given the increased concern and awareness of the potential risks of some chemicals, there is a growing need to align with ‘green chemistry’ and ‘safe and sustainable by design’ principles and thus to evaluate the hazards of agrochemical and pharmaceutical active ingredients in early stages of R&D. We give an overview of the current challenges and opportunities to assess the principle of biodegradability in the environment. Development of new medium/high-throughput methodologies, combining predictive tools and wet-lab experimentation are essential to design biodegradable chemicals early in the active ingredient discovery and selection process.

The Swiss fine chemicals company Bachem, pioneer and specialist in the chemical synthesis of peptides, has also become an internationally leading manufacturer of peptide active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). In response to increasing demands in scale and purity, Bachem's research efforts centered on the chemistry involved in solid-phase peptide synthesis and the production of the required amino acid derivatives with the aim of a continuous improvement of the technology. The resulting optimized protocols together with high-throughput equipment enabled us to manufacture long peptide APIs and, more recently, even pharma-grade glycoproteins in industrial scale.

ChemCon is a good example of the approximately 300 new companies founded in the BioValley over the past 15 years that are involved in the life sciences in one way or the other. ChemCon is engaged in contract research and custom synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates. The products are manufactured on small scale under GMP-conditions. Based in Freiburg employing 40 people, ChemCon recently expanded into the USA.