Acetonitrile shortage a wake-up call

As many solvent suppliers have recently announced restrictions on the supply of acetonitrile - a by-product from the automotive industry that is widely used in the pharmaceutical sector for analysis, contract research organization Melbourn Scientific stresses that there are alternatives that are equally effective and less harmful to the environment and it is launching a new service that would assist companies in minimizing the impact of this shortage.

Steve Westcott, managing director of Melbourn Scientific, has been encouraging clients, ranging from large pharmaceutical companies to early-stage biotechnology firms, to consider "green chemistry" for some years and sees the shortage of acetonitrile as the spur the industry needs to reconsider its selection of solvents.

Mr Westcott noted that "acetonitrile is a popular choice for liquid chromatography, a technique widely used to determine potency and impurity levels in drug analysis. It is chosen because it dissolves a wide range of compounds without complications and has low acidity and minimal chemical reactivity. However, it can be toxic in certain conditions and needs careful handling. "For several years now we have been encouraging clients to reduce the amount of solvents used in analytical method development. This has involved using newer techniques such as ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) or new HALO column technology which use smaller volumes of solvent and generate data more quickly."