Aiming for a standardized protocol for preparing a process green synthesis report and for ranking multiple synthesis plans to a common target product

Abstract

This paper proposes a standardized format for the preparation of process green synthesis reports that can be applied to chemical syntheses of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) of importance to the pharmaceutical industry. Such a report is comprised of the following eight sections: a synthesis scheme, a synthesis tree, radial pentagons and step E-factor breakdowns for each reaction step, a tabular summary of key material efficiency step and overall metrics for a synthesis plan, a mass process block diagram, an energy consumption audit based on heating and cooling reaction and auxiliary solvents, a summary of environmental and safety-hazard impacts based on organic solvent consumption using the Rowan solvent greenness index, and a cycle time process schedule. Illustrative examples of process green synthesis reports are given for the following pharmaceuticals: 5-HT2B and 5-HT7 receptors antagonist (Astellas Pharma), brivanib (Bristol-Myers Squibb), and orexin receptor agonist (Merck). Methods of ranking synthesis plans to a common target product are also discussed using 6 industrial synthesis plans of apixaban (Bristol-Myers Squibb) as a working example. The Borda count method is suggested as a facile and reliable computational method for ranking multiple synthesis plans to a common target product using the following 4 attributes obtained from a process green synthesis report: process mass intensity, mass of sacrificial reagents used per kg of product, input enthalpic energy for solvents, and Rowan solvent greenness index for organic solvents.