Custom synthesis short introduction

Tony Flinn: Custom synthesis is where a company requires a molecule to be made exclusively for them, at a certain scale. It’s custom in the sense that it’s dedicated for them, and it’s almost invariably done under confidentiality agreements.

“Custom synthesis can be as low as a few milligrams, or as high as 10 kilos or more.”

Usually the customer defines the quantity and the quality that they need. They may provide a recipe or a process, or alternatively we may have to design our own synthetic route to make it. Custom synthesis can be as low as a few milligrams, or it could be as high as 10 kilos or more. When you go above that sort of scale, it’s normally called contract manufacturing.

CL: What are the advantages of a pharmaceutical company contracting an external supplier for a compound?
TF: There are several advantages, potentially. We may have some expertise in a particular area of chemistry or some facilities that the pharma company may not have. With a big pharma company, they obviously have their own synthesis teams in-house; they might well be better served doing research and development work rather than just making something that has been made before. So it’s a matter of pharma companies prioritising what’s best for their own chemists.

Custom synthesis houses can be less expensive than pharma companies. As you can imagine, the rates of pay at pharma companies are considerably higher than the supplier base. And if they have their own resources in-house, they may have peaks and troughs; when they have peaks they might not have the in-house resources to do the chemistry, so they can look at external suppliers to help them. There are also a number of virtual pharma companies and small biotechs who don’t have their own chemistry facilities, and it’s a necessity for them to get companies like ourselves to make products for them.