BASF innovations in chiral intermediates

Germany's BASF, the world's largest chemicals group, has developed an innovative process for the production of new chiral intermediates for the pharmaceutical industry that are being made on a commercial scale.

These additions expand the company's technology platform for producing optically-active styrene oxides and aliphatic alcohols. The new BASF process, based on dehydrogenase biocatalysts, allows for the production of particularly high-purity substances that serve the pharmaceutical industry as important building blocks.

In addition, BASF is expanding its portfolio with two new, multi-faceted chiral amines: (R,R)- and (S,S)-Bis(1-phenylethyl)amine. These process chemicals can be used for the asymmetric synthesis of non-natural amino acids and as starting materials for chiral bases (ie, bases for the asymmetric deprotonation according to Nigel Simpkins, professor of chemistry at the University of Nottingham).